National Transfer Accounts Project


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National Transfer Accounts

National Transfer Accounts (NTA) is a system for measuring economic flows across age at the aggregate level in a manner consistent with National Income and Product Accounts. These flows arise primarily because of a fundamental feature of the economic lifecycle: children and the elderly consume more than they produce through their labor. NTA provides estimates of the components of the economic lifecycle and the interage flows that inevitably arise. The accounts distinguish the economic form of flows, transfers and asset-based flows and the institutions that mediate the flows, government and private institutions – most importantly the family.

When complete National Transfer Accounts will provide estimates with sufficient historical depth to study the evolution of intergenerational transfer systems; the consequences of alternative approaches to age reallocations embodied in public policy with respect to pensions, health care, education and social institutions, e.g., the extended family; and the social, political, and economic implications of population aging.

What's New

Summary of Results

Per capita age profiles of the life cycle deficit (LCD) for selected African countries. LCD is defined as the difference between consumption and labor income at each age. Lifecycle deficits occur when labor income is less than consumption and lifecycle surpluses when labor income exceeds consumption.

LCD_africa

For the rest of NTA countries, go to Selected Preliminary Results

Upcoming Meetings

Latin American NTA Seminar on Population Aging, Intergenerational Transfers, and Social Protection.
NTA researchers and policymakers from Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay will meet in Santiago, Chile on October 19-20, 2009 to discuss the use of National Transfers Accounts to inform public policy decisions. Organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and sponsored by the International Development Research Center (IDRC), United Nations Population Fund, and the United Nations Population Division.

AERC-CEDA-EWC NTA Training Workshop, Marrakesh, Morocco, September 27 - October 2, 2009
Held in conjunction with the IUSSP International Population Conference. Support for the workshop is provided by IDRC and UNFPA.

Recent Events

Uruguayan NTA Seminar on "Intergenerational Transfers, Population Aging, and Social Protection", Montevideo, Uruguay, May 21, 2009
Organized by the Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad de la República (DECON), the Seminar was held on Thursday, May 21, 2009. The program was opened by Frederick Burone, International Center for Development Research (IDRC), followed by an overview of the project undertaken by Cecilia Gonzalez (DECON). Subsequently, Tim Miller (Latin American Demographic Center, CELADE), and Marisa Bucheli (DECON) presented their papers.

African NTA Workshop on Shaping Social Protection in Africa: the National Transfer Accounts Approach, Mombasa, Kenya, May 13-27, 2009
NTA researchers and policymakers from four African countries (Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa) meet in Mombasa, Kenya. The workshop is sponsored by the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC).

Sixth Meeting of the Working Group on Macroeconomic Aspects of Intergenerational Transfers, Berkeley, January 9-10, 2009

NTA6_group

The workshop was held at the Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging, University of California - Berkeley and was co-sponsored by the East-West Center and the Nihon University Population Research Institute. NTA researchers from 28 countries participated as well as distinguished economists working on aging and economics issues. The meeting was followed by a one-week intensive training program.

For more information see Meetings and Presentations

Recent Publications

Racelis, Rachel H., and J.M. Ian Salas. 2008. "Have Lifecycle Consumption and Income Patterns in the Philippines Changed between 1994 and 2002?" PIDS Discussion Paper No. 2008-11.

This paper finds that Filipinos incur lifecycle deficits and do not become self-sufficient until after age 25, lifecycle surpluses are generated for the next 35 years, and at age 61 consumption starts to exceed labor earnings and lifecycle deficits are once again incurred. Consumption of the elderly is financed by own earnings, asset reallocation, private transfers (starting age 73) and to a very small extent by public transfers (starting age 80).


In the News

NTA-related news in the media


Members and Organization


Support for this project has been provided by the National Institute on Aging: NIA, R37-AG025488 and NIA, R01-AG025247; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; the International Development Research Center (IDRC); the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); and the Academic Frontier Project for Private Universities: matching fund subsidy from MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), 2006-10, granted to the Nihon University Population Research Institute.

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