The balancing of a system of national accounts is usually carried out by balancing first the flows at current prices and then those at constant prices. However, this procedure in two distinct steps makes it impossible to control the consistency of the system of deflators. The most appropriate way to obtain a consistent system of flows at both current and constant prices is to balance them simultaneously. The main complexity in balancing accounting systems simultaneously at current and constant prices is the nonlinearity of the balancing systems. This work introduces a new simultaneous balancing method to balance huge sets of national accounting data simultaneously at current and constant prices through the definition of a procedure based on the predictor-corrector method. The latter is the distinctive element of the proposed balancing method. The main features of the balancing method introduced in this work are its very high flexibility compared to the other methods in literature, and its useful capability to allow the control of the consistency of the system of deflators. An application to the Italian economic data has been worked out, and it has yielded significant results.

Historically, consumer behaviour has always been a subject of great interest for economists. Indeed, the theoretical and empirical approaches to the analysis of consumption phenomenon represent two interrelated, though autonomous, veins of research on a subject, which has undergone substantial conceptual changes over time to reach its present form. This paper provides a comprehensive study of consumer behaviour in Italy over the period 1970-2007. Traditionally, this type of studies gives partial and biased description of household spending habits because based on individual/few groups of commodities. This paper provides a de tailed assessment of the phenomenon by considering simultaneously all the first twelve divisions of the COICOP through two broad levels of analysis. The first is an analytic description of the key patterns of Italian consumption in volume terms, budget shares and relative prices over the period analysed with data from the Italian Institute of National Statistics. The second is an empirical evaluation of the phenomenon through the implementation of two classic functional forms. Specifically they are the Indirect Translog System as defined by Christensen, Jorgenson and Lau (1975), and the Generalised Leontief model as proposed by Diewert (1974). An economic and econometric comparison of outcomes is also worked out. Results indicate consumption habits, income and relative price differentials as main factors influencing consumer behaviour.

The balancing of a system of national accounts is normally carried out by balancing first the flows at current prices and then those at constant prices. However, this procedure in two distinct steps makes it impossible to “control” the consistency of the system of deflators. Therefore, a system of simultaneous balancing at current and constant prices is necessary to make it possible to obtain a consistent system of flows at current and constant prices, and of deflators. This paper introduces a simultaneous balancing method as an extension of the methodology described in Nicolardi (1998, 2000) for the simultaneous balancing at current and constant prices of a generic system of economic accounting. The application of the method to the Italian 2005 input-output table has yielded significant results in terms of balancing.

Owing to the considerable complexity of obtaining balanced accounting systems simultaneously at both constant and current prices, most countries publish national accounting data at current prices and only for a small number of aggregates at constant prices. In this paper, a suitable method is proposed to balance a very large set of National Accounts simultaneously at current and constant prices. The method is more flexible compared to the others in literature, and allows the consistency of the system of deflators to be controlled. An application to the Italian 2006 Supply-Use tables has been worked out, and it has yielded good outcomes.

According to the 1993 System of National Accounts, the annual Supply–Use Tables (SUTs) need to be compiled at both current and constant prices by the National Institutes of Statistics. The most appropriate way to obtain consistent SUTs at both current and constant prices is to balance them simultaneously but, in this case, the main complexity is the nonlinearity that inevitably occurs. This paper proposes a new method to balance extremely large sets of National Accounts simultaneously at current and constant prices. The distinctive features of the proposed balancing method are its flexibility, which is very high compared with the other methods in the literature, and its capability to allow the control of the consistency of the system of deflators that are used. This new balancing method has been applied to balance the Italian 2006 SUTs simultaneously at current and constant prices, and it has yielded very good outcomes.

According to the 1993 SNA and 1995 ESA recommendations, the annual Supply-Use Tables need to be compiled at both current and constant prices by the National Institutes of Statistics. The most appropriate way to obtain consistent Supply-Use Tables at both current and constant prices is to balance them simultaneously. The main complexity in balancing Supply-Use Tables and any other general accounting system simultaneously at both current and constant prices is the nonlinearity that inevitably occurs. Some attempts to solve the problem which are described in the literature are mainly based on the transformation of variables and definition of suitable matrices of variances and covariances of the system. In this paper, a suitable method is proposed to balance an extremely large set of National Accounts simultaneously at current and constant prices through the definition of a new procedure based on the predictor-corrector method. The distinctive features of the proposed balancing method are its flexibility, which is very high compared to the other methods in the literature, and its capability to allow the control of the consistency of the system of deflators. An application to the Italian 2006 Supply-Use tables has been worked out, and it has yielded good outcomes.