Accounting Concepts and SHA Aggregates

This chapter presents an overviewof the main accounting concepts and aggregates used throughout the Manual. While each aggregate is considered in further detail in the following chapters, here the focus is on the relationship between the consumption of health care goods and services and all the other possible uses of health care goods and services in the economy. The range of possible uses includes intermediate consumption (or factors of provision), analysed in Chapter 9, capital formation, presented in Chapter 11, and exports, examined in Chapter 12 together with imports. This chapter examines the central concept of consumption, considering the distinction between final consumption expenditure and actual final consumption and discusses the role of capital transfers. Various issues concerning the valuation of market and non-market transactions are also explored.