What Can Be Learned on the Living Standard of Households from National Accounts?

Anotace: The living standard of households can be assessed with the aid of several indices. The standards of the System of National Accounts (SNA 1993 and ESA 1995) have introduced the concept of actual final consumption and social transfers in kind apart from the final consumption expenditure. However, the information which could be taken from these indices is utilized only to a very small extent. So, what can they actually tell us? Can they be used for assessing the living standards of households and their comparing on an international scale? The paper gives answers to these questions by means of comparing the data from the Czech Republic and France.