REPORT OF 2008 OECD SOFTWARE SURVEY

Working Party on National AccountsParis, 14-16 October 2008

Jiemin GUO

Introduction• 2001 OECD task force for implementation

of SNA93 treating software as fixed asset.• Two previous software surveys

• 2002 survey – result reported to OECD WPNA2002

• 2004 small follow-up survey – result reported to OECD WPNA 2004

• 2007 OECD task force on R&D and Other Intellectual Property Products

• The 2008 software survey: for the handbook with updated information

2008 OECD Software Survey

• Scope: OECD countries and accession countries (35)

• 20 countries responded – 19 OECD Members– Israel

Basic approach (1)- Purchased software

• 15 out of 20 countries use a combination of supply-side and demand-side data.• Most adopt confrontation and balancing process.• Some rely more on the supply-side data and just

use the proportions from the survey estimates to allocate the supply-side aggregate to using industries and sectors,

• others, such as the Netherlands, place more reliance on the demand-side data.

• Countries had different views on the quality of the survey data. Some countries had concerns, but others thought they were of satisfactory quality.

Basic approach (2)- Own account software

• Six countries indicated that they also use surveys to obtain estimates of own account software GFCF. • Three of them also use a macro

method to derive estimates• The others rely solely on the survey

estimates.

Basic approach (3)

• The remaining 5 of the 20 countries use the supply-side approach only for purchased software and the macro approach only for own account software.

Supply-side approach

• Countries were asked to provide details for the 7 steps for estimating software prescribed in the Handbook.• There is considerable variation in country

practices and the relative magnitude of the adjustments.

– Avoiding double counting– Excluding maintenance from software supply– Exclusion of household consumption.

• Identifying imports of software is a major problem for many countries.

Macro approach to the estimation of own account software

• Most countries use employment of software professionals, but the coverage varies

• There is also considerable variation in the assumed proportions of the time spent by these people, ranges from 12.5% to 50%.

• The mark-up for non-labour costs varies a great deal, from 50% to 120% of labour costs.

SNA 2008 recommendation on software licences

• Most countries reported that no data collected.

• It appears that it will be difficult to implement in practice, and it is something the TF needs to address.

• Possible solutions:– Add questions to surveys on length of software

licences– Ask software publishers for length of software

licences for business software

R&D and software

• Only a few countries report having estimates of software R&D. – Only 8 countries answered.– 6 countries conducted R&D Survey.– 4 countries reported that R&D is included in

the estimates of software GFCF.

• Probably not much thought has been given to inclusion of software R&D by other countries.

Software price indices

• US (BEA) has established software price indices for different components

• A number of countries use the same approach as the BEA or use the adjusted BEA price index for packaged software.

• Most of the others use various PPIs, CPIs or wage rates.

Software service lives

• Most countries do not use different service lives for packaged and own account/customised software.

• Overall, the service lives used vary between 3 and 8 years.