Katharine G. Abraham - Böcker

The papers in this volume analyze the deployment of Big Data to solve both existing and novel challenges in economic measurement. The existing infrastructure for the production of key economic statistics relies heavily on data collected through sample surveys and periodic censuses, together with administrative records generated in connection with tax administration. The increasing difficulty of obtaining survey and census responses threatens the viability of existing data collection approaches. The growing availability of new sources of Big Data—such as scanner data on purchases, credit card transaction records, payroll information, and prices of various goods scraped from the websites of online sellers—has changed the data landscape. These new sources of data hold the promise of allowing the statistical agencies to produce more accurate, more disaggregated, and more timely economic data to meet the needs of policymakers and other data users. This volume documents progress made toward that goal and the challenges to be overcome to realize the full potential of Big Data in the production of economic statistics. It describes the deployment of Big Data to solve both existing and novel challenges in economic measurement, and it will be of interest to statistical agency staff, academic researchers, and serious users of economic statistics.

The national income and product accounts that underlie gross domestic product (GDP), together with other key economic dataa "price and employment statisticsa " are widely used as indicators of how well the nation is doing. GDP, however, is focused on the production of goods and services sold in markets and reveals relatively little about important production in the home and other areas outside of markets. A set of satellite accountsa "in areas such as health, education, volunteer and home production, and environmental improvement or pollutiona "would contribute to a better understanding of major issues related to economic growth and societal well-being. Beyond the Market: Designing Nonmarket Accounts for the United States hopes to encourage social scientists to make further efforts and contributions in the analysis of nonmarket activities and in corresponding data collection and accounting systems. The book illustrates new data sources and new ideas that have improved the prospects for progress.

The U.S. Census Bureau maintains an important portfolio of economic statistics programs, including quinquennial economic censuses, annual economic surveys, and quarterly and monthly indicator surveys. Government, corporate, and academic users rely on the data to understand the complexity and dynamism of the U.S. economy. Historically, the Bureau's economic statistics programs developed sector by sector (e.g., separate surveys of manufacturing, retail trade, and wholesale trade), and they continue to operate largely independently. Consequently, inconsistencies in questionnaire content, sample and survey design, and survey operations make the data not only more difficult to use, but also more costly to collect and process and more burdensome to the business community than they could be.This report reviews the Census Bureau's annual economic surveys. Specifically, it examines the design, operations, and products of 11 surveys and makes recommendations to enable them to better answer questions about the evolving economy.