At present, one of the most commonly used tools for organizing accounting data is to provide detailed and consistent information to decision makers in the form of tables. Since the establishment of the first SAM, the applied research field of SAM has been expanding, covering almost all fields of economy and society.

Since the 1960s, the first social accounting matrix has been used as part of the Cambridge Growth Project. Since it was established under the leadership of Si Tong, some scholars have become more and more interested in the study of "social accounting matrix", and with the vigorous promotion of the World Bank, at present, the research and compilation of social accounting matrix has become quite common in European and American countries. See the following table (a simple descriptive social accounting matrix): revenue and expenditure summary 12345 1 activity/commodity CGIE demand 2 residents y residents income 3 government TiTd government income 4 capital account ShSg Sf savings 5 other parts of the world m import summary supply residents expenditure government expenditure investment foreign exchange income Note: Quoted from D.W. Roland-Holst (199).

Where, the meaning of each variable is as follows:

C: Represents household consumption Td: Represents direct tax Sf: Represents foreign net savings Sh: Represents household savings Sg: Represents government savings M: Represents imports Ti: Represents indirect taxes E: Represents exports G: Represents government consumption.