There is a strong need for high quality information on how different household groups in society are faring. Shocks such as the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have stressed the importance of having better information on distributions across social groups, as key input to design policies and to foster inclusive growth. Distributional results on income, consumption and saving aligned to important macroeconomic aggregates such as GDP, household disposable income and household saving are crucial in this regard, providing insight in key dimensions of material well-being across household groups.

This publication presents guidance for the compilation of distributional results on household income, consumption and saving consistent with national accounts totals. It is the result of the work of the Expert Group on Disparities in a National Accounts framework (EG DNA) and provides an important addition to the suite of international statistical guidance, addressing increasing policy demands for household distributional results in line with macroeconomic totals.

This Handbook describes how to compile distributional estimates of household income, consumption and saving consistent with national accounts, in line with the methodology as developed by the OECD (/Eurostat) Expert Group on Disparities in a National Accounts framework (EG DNA). It aims to assist compilers in deriving good quality distributional results that are comprehensive, consistent, and comparable over time and across countries. Furthermore, it aims to provide users of these data with more insight into how these results have been derived, so that they can better assess the quality of the results and understand any differences that may exist with other distributional results.

The aim of the work is to compile distributional estimates of household income, consumption and saving consistent with national accounts totals. This chapter describes the underlying conceptual framework, focusing on the target population, the unit of analysis, the income and consumption concepts, and the household groupings and accompanying socio-demographic information targeted in the work.

This chapter provides an overview of the methodology to derive distributional estimates within the national accounts framework on the basis of micro data sources, according to the conceptual framework as laid down in the previous chapter.

The first step in the methodology concerns the adjustment of national accounts totals to exclude any amounts that do not relate to private households, i.e. the target population for the results. This chapter describes the specific adjustments that may be needed for this purpose.

The second step in the methodology concerns the selection of relevant variables from micro data sources to link to the national accounts items. This chapter discusses the main types of micro data sources that may be available for this purpose and provides guidance on how to best approach the selection.

In the third step, any gaps between the micro data and the national accounts totals need to be bridged. To this end, first, imputations need to be made for elements not covered in micro data sources, such as for missing parts of the population, informal activities and items that are specific to the national accounts. This chapter presents specific methods to apply these imputations.

The second part of the third step concerns the alignment of the micro data to the national accounts totals. Dependent on the size of the gaps, this may have an important impact on the results. This chapter explores potential reasons for the gaps and presents a framework that may assist in their allocation to the relevant households.

As multiple micro data sources may be used in the compilation process, linking data across these datasets in a proper way to arrive at coherent and consistent sets of accounts for underlying households is of crucial importance. This chapter describes four methods to achieve this objective, with their main pros and cons.

In the fourth step, households can be clustered into household groups. This chapter describes how this can be done for the main household groupings targeted in the work.

This chapter provides an overview of the national accounts components distinguished on the income side, describing their main characteristics and highlighting items from micro data sources that may provide the best possible link. It also explores possible reasons for gaps between the micro aggregates and the national accounts totals and provides guidance on how to arrive at underlying distributions in case micro data is lacking.

This chapter provides an overview of the national accounts components distinguished on the consumption side, describing their main characteristics and highlighting items from micro data sources that may provide the best possible link. It also explores possible reasons for gaps between the micro aggregates and the national accounts totals and provides guidance on how to arrive at underlying distributions in case micro data is lacking.

The quality of the distributional results largely depends on the quality and alignment of the micro data and the national accounts totals. Furthermore, assumptions may play an important role, for example in imputing for any missing elements, closing gaps between the micro and macro data, and linking data across different data sets. In this light, it is important to closely assess the consistency and plausibility of the results at the end of the compilation process. This chapter provides an overview of checks that may be conducted in this regard.

Step 5 concerns the derivation of indicators to present the distributional results. This chapter first discusses how to ensure comparability across household groups of different size and composition when publishing the results. It then highlights some examples of indicators that may be used to present the distributional results.

A lot of work has been done in developing methodology to compile distributional results in line with national accounts totals, as presented in this handbook. However, more work is needed. This chapter provides an overview of the main areas for further work.

The Canberra Group Handbook provides a conceptual definition of household income. This definition is in line with that as established by the International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) and reads as follows: