Title: Irish GDP Growth in 2015: A Puzzle and Propositions for a Solution
Abstract: in a manner fully consistent with the SNA methodology.Their results show substantial increases in inequality -including a global increase since 1980 despite the growth of China and India -but with substantial differences across countries.Given the way the pandemic is amplifying existing inequalities, it seems likely distribution will remain in sharp focus, in a welcome return to the tradition of early national accountants including Simon Kuznets.When it comes to sustainability, and the position of future generations, the statistical and conceptual challenges are greater.As Blanchet and Fleurbaey note, an assessment of sustainability necessarily involves forecasts to value stocks of wealth, which they suggest falls outside the remit of statistics production.Two aspects of sustainability seem critical to understanding economic welfare, however.One is human capital, which World Bank work estimates to be empirically the most important component of comprehensive wealth (World Bank, 2018).The other is natural capital and in particular climate.In his paper, Nicolas Canry discusses integrating measurement of human capital in the national accounts, as a component of investment rather than consumption, while Jean-Marc Germain and Thomas Lellouch discuss of ways towards an environmental economic accounting that would include the climate debt.Given recent progress in developing the Standard for Environmental Economic Accounts (UN) and its application in some countries (e.g. the Office for National Statistics in the UK), as well as broader interest in the measurement of produced and non-produced capitals (Zenghelis et al., 2020), statistics for sustainability seem sure to make progress.Turning to the newer challenges, the need to understand the interaction between the phenomena of globalisation and the national accounts has become pressing as supply chains and the role of large multinationals comes into sharper focus.Marie-Baïanne Khder, Jérémi Montornès and Nicolas Ragache examine how the notorious upward revision of Ireland's 2015 annual GDP growth in Ireland to 26% has reflected tax-related relocation of intangible assets by multinationals.