Glossary:Satellite account for research and development (R & D)
Satellite accounts are an evolving mechanism for presenting particular topics as annexes to main national accounts. The characteristics of satellite accounts can be described as below. Over time, satellite accounts for particular fields have come to be associated with the following characteristics:
- They feature data for a whole field of economic activity and provide a framework for arraying more comprehensive information about a field than can be shown in the main accounts.
- They are purpose-oriented in that the criterion for a transactor's or transaction's inclusion is its linkage to the field.
- They are articulated with the main accounts and contain at least one measure that is also in the main accounts.
- They present information in ways that are different from the main accounts: definitions, classifications, and accounting conventions may differ from those used in the main accounts in order to provide the most useful presentation of information about the field. What is counted as current or capital in the main accounts may be changed, or the boundary of production may be moved. The definitions, classifications, and accounting conventions must be consistent within the account, however.
- They often contain tables that answer several questions: Who is producing, and what are the means of production? Who is financing? What is the result of the expense, and who is benefiting or using the result?
- They often encompass monetary and physical data in an integrated fashion. Physical data may relate to production, for example, the number of persons employed in the field of the stocks of equipment. Physical data may also relate to beneficiaries, for example, the number of persons being affected by activities in the field.
Related concepts
Statistical data
Source
- OECD, "Main Definitions and Conventions for the Measurement of Research and Experimental Development (R&D). A Summary of the Frascati Manual 1993", OECD, Paris, 1994 - pdf