NABE presidential address: building improved official statistics for decisionmaking - National Association of Business Economists - Transcript

Business Economics, Jan, 1994 by Joseph W. Duncan

Recommendation 9: The Bureau of Economic Analysis should focus on developing output measures of the productivity of government workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' studies of the productivity in twenty-eight federal government functions and services are a major data source for preparing federal government estimates. These studies may also be appropriate for estimating productivity in related state and local government programs.

Recommendation 10: The Bureau of Economic Analysis should revitalize the input/output program to reduce the completion time of the benchmark tables to five years after the reference year. This includes motivating experienced employees to stay with the program and developing automated procedures for estimating the intermediate production quadrant cells of the table.

Recommendation 11: The Census Bureau should tabulate certain data from the microdata files of the economic censuses for use in preparing the benchmark input/output table. Examples of such tabulations are those for small companies and central administrative offices. The FY 1994 Bureau of Economic Analysis budget includes a request for funds to reimburse the Census Bureau for such tabulations. We support the request.

Recommendation 12: When it can be foreseen that existing data sources are inadequate to develop the satellite accounts further, BEA should prepare an inventory of high-priority data needs for these accounts. Because the satellites involve the program and statistical activities of their agencies, BEA should consult with these agencies in drawing up the data-needs inventory through an interagency committee. Such an inventory will facilitate the planning of future statistical programs by putting them in an overall context. Recommendation 13: The Bureau of Economic Analysis should convene a standing group of users of the national accounts with whom it consults on a regular basis. The group should include representatives from the Council of Economic Advisers, Federal Reserve Board, Congressional Budget Office, universities, private industry, labor unions, and research organizations. The subjects would include conceptual innovations, technical issues, data presentation, or other aspects of the accounts.

Recommendation 14: The Economic Classification Policy Committee composed of the Office of Management and Budget (ex officio), Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of the Census, and Bureau of Labor Statistics should make a concerted effort to complete the ongoing revision of the Standard Industrial Classification system to be incorporated in the 1997 economic census. If there is a slippage of more than a couple of months in this complete data, the revised SIC would first be incorporated in the economic statistics of the 2002 economic census.

Recommendation 15: When submitting their budgets to the executive branch and to Congress, statistical agencies should give more attention to relating the need for the data to existing or potential problems and issues of the nation. Requests should provide an example of how the data will address a concrete problem, in contrast to explaining the consequences of not having the information. This is particularly important in requests for a new program or to expand an existing one.