A Proposal for Treating Research and Development As Capital Expenditures in the Canadian SNA by Meir Salem and Yusuf Siddiqi
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Catalogue no. 11F0027MIE — No. 040 ISSN: 1703-0404 ISBN: 0-662-43680-6 Research Paper Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series A Proposal for Treating Research and Development as Capital Expenditures in the Canadian SNA by Meir Salem and Yusuf Siddiqi Industry Accounts Division 23rd floor, R.H. Coats Building, Ottawa, K1A 0T6 Telephone: 1 800 263-1136 A Proposal for Treating Research and Development as Capital Expenditures in the Canadian SNA by Meir Salem* and Yusuf Siddiqi** 11F0027MIE No. 040 ISSN: 1703-0404 ISBN: 0-662-43680-6 Statistics Canada Industry Accounts Division 23rd, R.-H.-Coats Building, 100 Tunney’s Pasture Driveway, Ottawa, K1A 0T6 * (613) 951-3702 E-mail: [email protected] ** (613) 951-8909 E-mail: [email protected] June 2006 Authors' names are listed alphabetically. Paper presented at the 15th International Conference on Input-Output Techniques, June 27 – July 1, 2005, Beijing, People’s Republic of China. The authors are grateful for comments and suggestions from Karen Wilson, Director General, Canadian System of National Accounts, John R. Baldwin, Antoine Rose, and Peter Koumanakos. The authors would like to thank Richard Landry and Mychèle Gagnon for their work on the development of capital stock used in research and development production. Published by authority of the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada © Minister of Industry, 2006 All rights reserved. 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All papers in the Economic Analysis Series go through institutional and peer review to ensure that they conform to Statistics Canada's mandate as a government statistical agency and adhere to generally accepted standards of good professional practice. The papers in the series often include results derived from multivariate analysis or other statistical techniques. It should be recognized that the results of these analyses are subject to uncertainty in the reported estimates. The level of uncertainty will depend on several factors: the nature of the functional form used in the multivariate analysis; the type of econometric technique employed; the appropriateness of the statistical assumptions embedded in the model or technique; the comprehensiveness of the variables included in the analysis; and the accuracy of the data that are utilized. The peer group review process is meant to ensure that the papers in the series have followed accepted standards to minimize problems in each of these areas. Publications Review Committee Analytical Studies Branch, Statistics Canada 18th Floor, R.H. Coats Building Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0T6 Table of contents Executive Summary...................................................................................................................... 5 1. Introduction............................................................................................................................... 6 2. Existing Statistics Canada research and development data ................................................. 6 3. The scope of research and development capital..................................................................... 8 4. Depreciation of research and development capital.............................................................. 12 5. Deflation of research and development................................................................................. 14 6. Capitalization of research and development in the Canadian SNA................................... 15 7. The output of research and development ............................................................................. 15 8. Overlapping expenditures...................................................................................................... 17 9. Capital consumption............................................................................................................... 17 10. Net operating surplus ........................................................................................................... 18 11. Taxes and subsidies............................................................................................................... 18 12. Own-account output ............................................................................................................. 18 13. Sales within Canada.............................................................................................................. 19 14. Trade in research and development.................................................................................... 19 15. Research and development investment by industry .......................................................... 20 16. Impact of capitalization on gross domestic product .......................................................... 20 17. A satellite account for research and development/innovation.......................................... 21 18. Concluding remarks and recommendations ...................................................................... 23 Appendix...................................................................................................................................... 25 References.................................................................................................................................... 28 Economic Analysis Research Paper Series - 4 - Statistics Canada – Catalogue no. 11F0027MIE no. 040 Executive Summary This paper explores three key issues related to the capitalization of research and development expenditures in the National Accounts. First, it considers issues of scope of research activities and the range of investment activities that “should” be included as capital expenditures and reflected as part of productive capital stock and national wealth. It reviews the criteria and recommendations outlined in the Frascati Manual and the 1993 System of National Accounts (1993 SNA) to deal with issues such as whether to include “basic” research activities, and whether to include certain investments involved in industrial implementation of research and development (R&D). After considering the views of other contributors to the Canberra II Group, it recommends to include in capitalized R&D all patentable research conducted in the public sector and all research conducted in the business sector. In addition, it recommends that a wider range of investment activities be included in R&D capital than those suggested by the Frascati Manual. The recommended changes cannot be implemented with the existing data. Next, the paper outlines steps that are required to transform Statistics Canada R&D data based on the Frascati Manual to accord with the 1993 SNA concepts and definitions in order to estimate R&D output by industry and R&D capital expenditures by industry and sector. The paper shows that capitalization of R&D based on existing Statistics Canada data would increase the level of capital formation by $15.8 billion or 7.7%, and raise total gross domestic product (GDP) by $12.8 billion or 1.2% for the year 2000. In order to develop capital consumption and capital stock measures, the paper reviews issues and choices related to depreciation and deflation of the newly developed R&D investment series. It uses a perpetual inventory model and a geometric depreciation pattern with two alternative assumptions about asset life