A Prototype BEA/BLS Industry-Level Production Account for the United States

N RECENT YEARS, structural changes at the indus­ try level in the United States and their implications for competitiveness have emerged as important eco­ nomic issues. The most recent business cycle and sub­ sequent recovery in particular led to heightened interest in understanding the sources of economic growth, including output, input, and multifactor pro­ ductivity (MFP) growth across all industries in the U.S. economy. To better understand the sources of economic growth, productivity statistics integrated with gross domestic product (GDP) statistics have long been sought as a rich source of information for policy mak­ ers, business analysts, and economists. The usefulness of such integrated statistics on the sources of growth within the framework of the U.S. national income and product accounts (NIPAs) was first presented by Jor­ genson and Landefeld (2006) in A New Architecture for the U.S. National Accounts. In that same volume, Frau­ meni, Harper, Powers, and Yuskavage (2006) estab­ lished the groundwork for a collaboration by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to create a production account. Since 2010, the two agencies have been working to­ ward creating a prototype production account. This Research Spotlight summarizes a lengthier, more de­ tailed report on the prototype integrated production account that was recently published on the BEA Web site. The initial results of the prototype account show the following: