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This paper presents the first Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) compiled for Canada. Using data for the year 2000, the authors demonstrate the feasibility of constructing a SAM for the national economy. Being an extension of the existing National Economic Accounts, a SAM is a consistent and complete representation of the socioeconomic system that captures the interdependencies of institutional groups. It is both a conceptual framework and a data system that can support analyses of socioeconomic policy issues; be used to evaluate the socioeconomic impact of exogenous changes; or serve as a database for general equilibrium modeling. This paper presents a macro SAM with three micro extensions. The first application expands the household sector through integration with household surveys, showing incomes, outlays, savings, and fiscal transfers of the sector by income quintile and other household attributes. This expansion could be conducted within national accounting conventions reflected in the aggregate SAM. However, for this exercise, the authors use a market-transaction approach, which introduces a new perspective on household savings that diverges from national accounting concepts and Canadian System of National Accounts sub-control totals. The second application expands employment income by age, gender, educational attainment, and industry of employment. The third application shows product taxes by type of expenditure and type of tax.
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