The SAM
SAMs are square (columns equal rows) in the sense that all institutional agents (Firms,Households, Government and 'Rest of Economy' sector) are both buyers and sellers. Columns represent buyers (expenditures) and rows represent sellers (receipts). SAM's were created to identify all monetary flows from sources to recipients, within a disaggregated national account. The SAM is read from column to row, so each entry in the matrix comes from its column heading, going to the row heading. Finally columns and rows are added up, to ensure accounting consistency, and each column is added up to equal each corresponding row. In the illustration below for a basic open economy, the item C (consumption) comes from Households and is paid to Firms.
Illustrative Open Economy SAM:
| Firm | Household | Government | Rest of Economy | Net Investment | Total (Received) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firm | C | GF | (X-M)K | I | C+GF+(X-M)K+I | |
| Household | W | GH | (X-M)C | W+GH+(X-M)C | ||
| Government | TF | TH | TF+TH | |||
| Rest of Economy | (X-M)K | (X-M)C | (X-M)K+(X-M)C | |||
| Net Investment | SH | SG | SH+SG | |||
| Total (Expended) | W+TF+(X-M)K | C+TH+(X-M)C+SH | GF+GH+SG | (X-M)C+(X-M)K | I |
Abbreviations: Capital letters: Taxes, Wages, iMports, eXports, Savings, Investment, Consumption, Government Transfer Subscripts: Firms, Households, Government, Consumption Goods, K: Capital Goods
Read more about this topic: Social Accounting Matrix
Famous quotes containing the words the sam and/or sam:
“The Same, the Same: friend and foe are of one stuff; the ploughman, the plough, and the furrow, are of one stuff; and the stuff is such, and so much, that the variations of form are unimportant.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The past is interesting not only for the beauty which the artists for whom it was the present were able to extract from it, but also as past, for its historical value. The same goes for the present. The pleasure which we derive from the representation of the present is due not only to the beauty in which it may be clothed, but also from its essential quality of being present.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“Emily, I’ve a little confession to make. I really am a horse doctor. But marry me, and I’ll never look at another horse.”
—Robert Pirosh, screenwriter, George Seaton, screenwriter, and George Oppenheimer, screenwriter. Sam Wood. Dr. Hackenbush (Groucho Marx)
“So Sam enters the universe of sleep, a man who seeks to live in such a way as to avoid pain, and succeeds merely in avoiding pleasure. What a dreary compromise is life!”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)