IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/123776.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Ethical Government Accounting

Author

Listed:
  • Basu, Rahul
  • Vaze, Prashant
  • Chari, Ankita Navso

Abstract

The System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA) and the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 (GFSM) are undergoing revision to better capture the extraction of mineral assets. We discuss current practices and the proposed changes and argue that they give a misleading picture of governments’ effectiveness as mineral owners in capturing the economic rent, leading to hidden wealth transfers to extractors. Case studies from Australia and Goa, India, illustrate the magnitude of wealth loss during the liquidation of mineral assets and the inadequacy of the current standards. The proposed split asset treatment could obscure potentially large and legally contentious wealth transfers. A case study based on Statistics Canada’s sectoral balance sheet illustrates this. Our suggestions align with the principle that mineral resources are inherited wealth, necessitating a stewardship role by mineral owners. We propose a framework that more accurately reflects impacts on national and public sector sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Basu, Rahul & Vaze, Prashant & Chari, Ankita Navso, 2024. "Ethical Government Accounting," MPRA Paper 123776, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:123776
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/123776/1/MPRA_paper_123776.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. André Vanoli, 1995. "Reflections On Environmental Accounting Issues," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 41(2), pages 113-137, June.
    2. Basu, Rahul & Pegg, Scott, 2020. "Minerals are a shared inheritance: Accounting for the resource curse," MPRA Paper 102270, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Carl Obst & Michael Vardon, 2014. "Recording environmental assets in the national accounts," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(1), pages 126-144.
    4. Ezequiel Cabezon & Christian Henn, 2018. "Counting the Oil Money and the Elderly: Norway's Public Sector Balance Sheet," IMF Working Papers 2018/190, International Monetary Fund.
    5. repec:bla:revinw:v:41:y:1995:i:2:p:113-37 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Kjell Arne Brekke, 1997. "Hicksian Income from Resource Extraction in an Open Economy," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 73(4), pages 516-527.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Harris, Michael & Fraser, Iain, 2002. "Natural resource accounting in theory and practice: A critical assessment," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 46(2), pages 1-54.
    2. Carl Obst & Lars Hein & Bram Edens, 2016. "National Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Assets and Their Services," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 64(1), pages 1-23, May.
    3. Bram Edens, 2013. "Depletion: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 54(3), pages 419-441, March.
    4. World Bank, 2024. "The Changing Wealth of Nations: Adding Water to the Changing Wealth of Nations," World Bank Publications - Reports 42356, The World Bank Group.
    5. Garcia-del-Real, Jose & Alcaráz, Manuel, 2024. "Unlocking the future of space resource management through satellite remote sensing and AI integration," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    6. Bagstad, Kenneth J. & Ingram, Jane Carter & Shapiro, Carl D. & La Notte, Alessandra & Maes, Joachim & Vallecillo, Sara & Casey, C. Frank & Glynn, Pierre D. & Heris, Mehdi P. & Johnson, Justin A. & Lau, 2021. "Lessons learned from development of natural capital accounts in the United States and European Union," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    7. Ian Goldin & Pantelis Koutroumpis & François Lafond & Julian Winkler, 2024. "Why Is Productivity Slowing Down?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 196-268, March.
    8. Liu, Junfeng & Shen, Fei & Zhang, Jingru, 2023. "Economic and environmental effects of mineral resource exploitation: Evidence from China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PB).
    9. Banerjee, Onil & Cicowiez, Martin & Horridge, Mark & Vargas, Renato, 2019. "Evaluating synergies and trade-offs in achieving the SDGs of zero hunger and clean water and sanitation: An application of the IEEM Platform to Guatemala," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 280-291.
    10. Caparrós, Alejandro & Oviedo, José L. & Álvarez, Alejandro & Campos, Pablo, 2017. "Simulated exchange values and ecosystem accounting: Theory and application to free access recreation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 140-149.
    11. Peter ven de Ven & Anne Harrison & Barbara Fraumeni & Andre Vanoli, 2017. "The Future of the SNA in a Broad Information System Perspective," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63, pages 238-265, December.
    12. Eric Neumayer, 2000. "Resource Accounting in Measures of Unsustainability: Challenging the World Bank's Conclusions," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 15(3), pages 257-278, March.
    13. Carretero-Gómez, Anselmo & Piedra-Muñoz, Laura, 2021. "Sustainability of non-renewable resources: the case of marble in Macael (Spain)," MPRA Paper 119917, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Gren, Ing-Marie & Isacs, Lina, 2009. "Ecosystem services and regional development: An application to Sweden," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 2549-2559, August.
    15. Edens, Bram & Hein, Lars, 2013. "Towards a consistent approach for ecosystem accounting," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 41-52.
    16. Paola Ovando & Alejandro Caparros & Luis Díaz-Balteiro & María Pasalodos & Santiago Beguería & José L. Oviedo & Gregorio Montero & Pablo Campos, 2015. "Spatial Valuation of forests’ environmental assets: an application to andalusian silvopastoral farms," Working Papers 1505, Instituto de Políticas y Bienes Públicos (IPP), CSIC.
    17. Giles Atkinson & Paola Ovando, 2022. "Distributional Issues in Natural Capital Accounting: An Application to Land Ownership and Ecosystem Services in Scotland," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 81(2), pages 215-241, February.
    18. Geir Asheim & Taoyuan Wei, 2009. "Sectoral Income," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 42(1), pages 65-87, January.
    19. Omri, Emna & Chtourou, Nouri & Bazin, Damien, 2015. "Solar thermal energy for sustainable development in Tunisia: The case of the PROSOL project," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1312-1323.
    20. Widhayani Puri Setioningtyas & Csaba Bálint Illés & Anna Dunay & Abdul Hadi & Tony Susilo Wibowo, 2022. "Environmental Economics and the SDGs: A Review of Their Relationships and Barriers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-24, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public sector net worth; Sustainability; Exhaustible resources; Public sector accounting; Environmental accounting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • H83 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Public Administration
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:123776. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.