The Construction of Capital Stock Estimates at the Establishment Level: A Canadian Example 1

Abstract

This paper examines the theoretical issues associated with the construction of establishment-level capital stock estimates and proposes a methodology to generate such estimates given the establishment-level data on gross capital formation available at Statistics Canada. This methodology is then applied to a set of 36 establishments in the Canadian newsprint industry to obtain capital stock estimates in gross and net terms in constant, current and original dollars for the years 1975 to 1985. These estimates are then evaluated by comparing them to responses from a special survey of capital stock values conducted by Statistics Canada in 1984. On a relative basis the constructed estimates are consistent with the values provided by the survey.