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Why the Flow of Funds Don’t Explain the Flow of Funds: Sectoral Balances, Balance Sheets, and the Accumulation Fallacy

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  • Roth, Steve

Abstract

This paper highlights and unpacks a little-known reality about the Financial Accounts of the United States: the Flows matrix on page 1 of the Federal Reserve’s quarterly Z.1 report does not explain period-to-period changes in the Levels matrix on page 3. The same is true of the sectoral Flow and Levels tables underlying those matrixes. Nor do those tables provide balance-sheet-complete accounting of household or national wealth accumulation. Measures of net saving/investment/capital formation and accumulation, and national wealth accumulation, diverge by tens of trillions of dollars. The discrepancy is explained and resolved by assembling a balance-sheet-complete empirical derivation of comprehensive U.S. “Haig-Simons” income, based on the Integrated Macroeconomic Accounts. The comprehensive measure is 23% higher than national accounts’ “primary” income. Relationships to the Piketty/Saez/Zucman Distributional National Accounts (DINAs) are discussed, along with implications for economic theory and empirical modeling, both mainstream and heterodox/Post-Keynesian.

Suggested Citation

  • Roth, Steve, 2021. "Why the Flow of Funds Don’t Explain the Flow of Funds: Sectoral Balances, Balance Sheets, and the Accumulation Fallacy," MPRA Paper 109976, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:109976
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Facundo Alvaredo & Bertrand Garbinti & Thomas Piketty, 2017. "On the Share of Inheritance in Aggregate Wealth: Europe and the USA, 1900–2010," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 84(334), pages 239-260, April.
    2. Kotlikoff, Laurence J & Summers, Lawrence H, 1981. "The Role of Intergenerational Transfers in Aggregate Capital Accumulation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(4), pages 706-732, August.
    3. Jacob Robbins, 2019. "Capital Gains and the Distribution of Income in the United States," 2019 Meeting Papers 202, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    4. Thomas I. Palley, 2017. "Inequality and growth in neo-Kaleckian and Cambridge growth theory," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 5(2), pages 146-169, April.
    5. Facundo Alvaredo & Bertrand Garbinti & Thomas Piketty, 2017. "On the Share of Inheritance in Aggregate Wealth: Europe and the USA, 1900–2010," Post-Print halshs-01509650, HAL.
    6. Stefan Ederer & Miriam Rehm, 2020. "Will wealth become more concentrated in Europe? Evidence from a calibrated Post-Keynesian model," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 44(1), pages 55-72.
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    Cited by:

    1. Roth, Steve, 2021. "Spending by Bottom-80% U.S. Households Is Persistently Greater than Income. What Funds the Deficit?," MPRA Paper 110670, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    wealth; flow of funds; capital; accumulation; integrated macroeconomic accounts; IMAs; income; gains; holding gains; capital gains; haig-simons;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology
    • B5 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution

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