ABSTRACT
It can be restated for convenience that the idea of a social accounting matrix (SAM) goes back to Quesney’s work on Tableau Economique in 1758. Hicks used the term social accounting in 1942. In the framework of revisions of the system of national accounts statistics, initiated by United Nations, Stone concretised the SAM framework in 1947. Several associates of Stone, working in the context of developing countries, and led by Pyatt, presented a first comprehensive publication on the SAM, for Sri Lanka, cf. Pyatt and Roe (1977), Since then, there are now SAMs for about 40 developing countries, but only for a couple of industrial countries, cf. Cohen (1986).
