Additivity of Deflated Input-Output Tables in National Accounts

Input-output tables deflated by chained prices indices are not additive over product rows. This paper discusses the reasons and suggests a remedy. The new method proposed is based on a distinction, in concept, between 'real value', on the one hand, and variation in 'volume', on the other. The first corrects for the monetary variation of the unit of account resulting from inflation, while the latter isolates the variation of one product price relative to the other products, caused by the forces of supply and demand on each individual commodity market. An example of the resulting growth analysis is compiled for the Dutch economy between years 1990 and 2000.