Research Discussion Paper – RDP 18 revised Private Sector Wealth: Quarterly Estimates for Use in an Aggregate Model

Introduction

The wealth estimates described in this paper are used within a quarterly model of the Australian economy [10]. This has required that the components be defined, so far as possible, in terms of variables explained elsewhere in the model. In particular, most of the series are built up from quarterly national accounts expenditure series at a fairly high level of aggregation. This helps to make our work of particular interest to builders and users of macroeconomic models, but of limited use to those searching for more detailed measures of asset accumulation. Our efforts draw on earlier work by Garland and Goldsmith [7] and numerous other official and private sources.

The plan of the paper is as follows. In section 2 we discuss the degree of consolidation employed in dealing with the various sectors of the economy. In section 3 we describe the valuation methods used, in section 4 we consider how the wealth estimates might be used in expenditure and portfolio allocation models, and in section 5 we briefly describe the growth of private sector wealth over the data period 1958–1975. The appendix contains more detailed descriptions of the calculation procedures along with the tables of data.