Globalisation and the consequent increased interconnectedness between countries has transformed economies and how they function. This has affected the policy options available, particularly in response to economic shocks. Aggregate macroeconomic statistics are not fit for describing the broad variety of experiences across different kind of companies (e.g. small- and medium sized enterprises, multinationals and exporters). More nuanced evidence are needed to inform policies and target specific enterprise types. This has triggered strong demand for high-quality information on how different types of enterprises in the economy are faring, and to what extent they are participating in global value chains. Production, value added, imports, and exports disaggregated by enterprise type, along with important macroeconomic aggregates such as GDP and employment, are now essential tools in the modern policy toolbox.
Traditional supply and use tables (SUTs) and input-output tables (IOTs) do not account for these heterogeneities. In 2014, the OECD launched an Expert Group on Extended Supply and Use Tables (EGESUT) to develop methodologies for the compilation of statistics on different enterprise types consistent with national accounts aggregates. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has actively participated and supported this initiative since then.
This Handbook is the result of the work of this expert group over the last decade. It sets new international standards and presents guidance on how to compile extended supply and use tables (ESUTs) and extended input-output tables (EIOTs). The Handbook offers a new approach to provide industry breakdowns by enterprise type. The methodologies build on existing data and methods to avoid additional data collection. The numerous country examples in the Handbook demonstrate that these methods are broadly replicable across countries.
The Handbook aims to assist compilers in deriving high-quality information about different enterprises in their economies, their interconnectedness and their role in global value chains, so that policymakers can make informed decisions. The Handbook offers users with more insights into how the results have been derived and how they should be interpreted. Guidance is provided by sharing best practices, catering for situations where enterprise data are available and for when they are not.
We hope that compilers and analysts will find this pedagogical and pragmatic OECD-JRC handbook useful.
Steve MacFeely,
Chief Statistician and Director,
Statistics and Data Directorate
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Bernard Magenhann,
Acting Director-General,
European Commission's Joint Research Centre