Estimating quarterly national accounts

Abstract

This paper contains estimates of quarterly national accounts for Ireland for the period 1963 to 1977. It summarises the work in this area so far completed in the Research Department in the Central Bank of Ireland. In the first section of the paper is a brief summary of the historical development of national accounts and the reasons for estimating quarterly accounts. Section 2 outlines some of the shortcomings in estimating the accounts. Section 3 proposes an estimation method which involves the use of indicator variables, lists quarterly national accounts variables in order of priority of need and then discusses the derivation of indicator variables for the national accounts variables. Section 4 discusses the results of estimating the main aggregates which are shown in Appendix 3. Section 5 contains a short evaluation of the estimates, proposes the direction of future work and discusses immediate uses to which the national accounts estimates will be put.