Parallel session IARIW 2014

1. PASCAL SCHMIDT AND NORA HEIL:
DELINEATION OF GENERAL
GOVERNMENT SECTOR – THE
ISSUE OF EXTRA BUDGETARY
UNITS
IARIW-conference, August 24 – 30, 2014
Session 7D
Discussant:
Peter van de Ven
Head of National Accounts, OECD

2. Main topics of the paper
• Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP)
• Huge political attention for government debt and deficit
as a % of GDP (Maastricht definitions)
• Can hardly be underestimated!
• Lots of attention for improving reliability and international
comparability
• One of the issues concerns the appropriate delineation
of the government sector
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3. Main topics of the paper
• Main issue: how to identify and classify “extra budgetary
units” belonging to general government?
• The build-up and use of a register of public units
(Berichtskreismanagement, BKM), including all units
(29,250 units) that qualify as being part of the public
sector, i.e. part of general government or part of
(government controlled) public corporations to be
classified outside general government
• How to address changes in the organisational structure
of government
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4. Overview of the paper
• Distinction between “primary units” and “extra budgetary
units”
• Primary units: ministries, agencies, judicial authorities,
legislative bodies, etc., which constitute the core
government and usually are not to be considered as
separate institutional units => general government
• However, classification of extra budgetary units is less
clear => decision tree based three criteria (according to
ESA 2010):
o Institutional unit or not
o Control by government
o Market versus non-market producer
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5. Overview of the paper
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6. Overview of the paper
• Description of main data sources for applying the criteria
• Subsequently, a short description of the contents of the
BKM is provided, including some issues in relation to
changes in the business demography
– Rather minor: less than 0.4% for the past few years
– Complete review in relation to implementation ESA 2010:
entries in the range of 2.7% (787 units), exits in the range of
1.3% (374 units), predominantly rather small units
• Finally, a section on reconciliation (arriving at a
consistent recording of various intra-sector transactions)
and “re-integration” of data (dealing with changes from
primary units to extra budgetary units)
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7. Re-integration
• …
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8. Discussion
• Very clear paper on the way government is delineated in
practice in Germany, some questions though …
• Did you experience particular difficulties in applying the
criteria regarding institutional unit (or not), the issue of
control or the distinction between market vs. non-market?
• In delineating the BKM-register, the issue of “control”
seems to have disappeared, the register being confined
to units controlled by government => what happened to
the rest?
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9. Discussion
• What would you want to “re-integrate” units which
changed from primary units to extra budgetary units,
certainly in the case of the relevant units becoming
separate institutional units?
• How do you align the BKM-register to the General
Business Register?
• What was the impact (entries and exits) of the new
benchmark in terms of e.g. employment, and what were
the main reasons?
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10. Thank you for your attention!
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