Economics of a Nation

The well-being of the chemical industry depends on the economic performance and buying power of the nation in which it operates. To determine a nation s economic performance, the flow of goods, services, and money between consumers, government, business, and foreign interests must be known. In the United States, the Department of Commerce has the responsibility of maintaining the data, and the estimation of various important quantities such as GNP and national income is a difficult and nontrivial task. Some idea of the complexity of the national accounts as well as some of the key concepts used in the bookkeeping operation 

A one-figure indication of the health of a nation s economy is provided by 

Government purchases G Gross private domestic investment Net exports rtf goods and services (X Z) 

Compensation ofcmployccs 707.1 Proprietors income 74.2 Interest 45.2 Dividends 26.0 Rental income of per.son.s 24. i C orponite taxes on profits 42,7 

The National Income Division of the Department of Commerce computes the GDP (and GNP) regularly, and a monthly summary of the National Income Accounts is provided by Economic Indicators, a publication issued by the GPO. Data for computing GDP are provided by (a) periodic censuses, (b) payroll and employment statistics as developed from social security information, (c) tax information collected by the Internal Revenue Service, and (d) fiscal records of the federal government. More detail on sources of information and methods of estimation are given in Refs. 5 and 6. 

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