Social accounting in Sweden – a progress report

This report describes the progress made in Sweden in the field of social accounting matrices (SAM). The SAM, which now exists in a preliminary version for 1991, is described in terms of general layout, classifications, data sources and data quality and reconciliation problems. The SAM exists in a detailed version containing 109 rows and columns but a condensed version is also given and shown in the Appendix. The data sources specifically described are the annual Survey of Distribution of Income and the 1992 Family Expenditure Survey. The special solution applied in the Swedish National Accounts to the classification of value added and its components is also dealt with. The problems of data quality and in reconciling the micro-data from the Surveys mentioned to the macro-data of the National Accounts seems to be a major problem in SAM and the present position in the Swedish System is also described. An outline concerning the possibilities of further developing SAMs in Sweden is presented as well.