ABSTRACT
The Social Accounting Matrix, SAM, brings the aggregate national accounts of a country together and breaks them down into production sectors, production factors, earning households expenditure categories, government, and the rest of the world; the whole within a consistent and statistically closed matrix. Assuming linear relations and constant prices, the SAM is convertible in a model that gives the functioning of the economy and its performance. The objective of this chapter is to analyse the structures and performances of Russia and China making use of the SAM as a framework for the comparative analysis of their systemic differences.
