what is national income accounting 
national income accounting is a bookkeeping system that a government uses to measure the level of the country s economic activity in a given time period accounting records of this nature include data regarding total revenues earned by domestic corporations wages paid to foreign and domestic workers and the amount spent on sales and income taxes by corporations and individuals residing in the country investopedia matthew collinsunderstanding national income accountingalthough national income accounting is not an exact science it provides useful insight into how well an economy is functioning and where money is being generated and spent when combined with information regarding the associated population data regarding per capita income and growth can be examined over a period of time some of the metrics calculated by using national income accounting include the gross domestic product gdp gross national product gnp and gross national income gni the gdp is widely used for economic analysis on the domestic level and represents the total market value of the goods and services produced within a specific nation over a selected period of time in the u s the bureau of economic analysis bea prepares and publishes data on national income accounts examples of national income accounts published by the bea include domestic product and income personal product and income savings and investments and foreign transactions 1uses of national income accountingthe information collected through national income accounting can be used for a variety of purposes such as assessing the current standard of living or the distribution of income within a population additionally national income accounting provides a method for comparing activities within different sectors of an economy as well as changes within those sectors over time a thorough analysis can assist in determining overall economic stability within a nation for example the u s uses information regarding the current gdp in the formation of various policies the commonly used formula for calculating gdp the expenditure approach is also known as the national income accounting equation the formula is gdp c g i nx