Institutional Framework for
Economic Statistics in Decentralized
System
J. Steven Landefeld
Director
Friends of the Chair Group on Integrated
Economic Statistics, Work Group Meeting
June 6-8, 2007
How Do Things Get Done in A Decentralized
System?
 The U.S. system produces a set of
statistics that pretty well reflects what
the U.S. public wants:
 Timely data that answers the “big picture”
questions, gets the answer “about right,” and
doesn’t ask “too much” information from
respondents
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How Do Things Get Done in A Decentralized
System?
 The system achieves this through:
 Coordination of selected infrastructure issues
 Strong degree of independence of major
statistical agencies
 Working with and listening very carefully to
customers (balancing needs of all customers)
 Responding to these customers by
 Specializing and coordinating across agencies in
research, innovation, and implementation in the
development of new measures for these
customers.
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Role of the Chief Statistician & Inter-Agency Council
on Statistical Policy (ICSP)
 Infrastructure
 Education – JPSM
 Best practices – OMB Quality and Documentation
Standards
 Principles for statistical agencies
 Confidentiality, Independence, Professionalism
 Common data dissemination – FEDSTATS
 Classification systems – NAICS, NAPS, Regional
 Standards and Guidelines for: Data releases,
survey response rates, and accuracy
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Role of Chief Statistician & ICSP
 Integration
 Forms review – avoid duplication, minimize
response burden
 Cross cutting budget review
 Data sharing – CIPSEA and IITSA
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Role of Federal Economic Statistics Advisory
Committee
 Review of Cross cutting BEA, BLS and
Census issues
 Recommendations for improvements,
including:
 Expansion of payroll survey
 Development of time use survey
 Development of financial services prices
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Role of Intra-Agency Coordination
 BEA/BLS
 PPI expansion for services, export-import prices, new nonresidential construction process, and integration of BEA-BLS
employment and productivity data
 BEA/Census
 Domestic services data expansion and assistance on
international services sample frame
 BEA/FRB
 Stock options, pensions, LAN prices and integration of Flow
of Funds and NIPAs.
 BEA/FRB/Treasury
 Derivatives, short-term instruments, and tax havens
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Professional Associations & Interest Groups
 BEA/NABE
 chain and hedonic indexes, more timely regional and industry
data, NAICS time series
 BEA/Coalition of Services Industries
 expanded detail on international trade in services
 BEA/NBER-CRIW
 Multinational Corporations, capital stock and deprecation,
prices for new goods and services, medical care, intangibles
and integration
 BEA/AEA
 “New Economy,” “off-shoring”, corporate profits and medical
care
 BEA/ACCRA/AUBER
 more timely, detailed, comprehensive regional data
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Role of BEA Advisory Committee
 Blue ribbon panel of academics and business
leaders
 Recommendations carry weight beyond BEA
 Key role in all BEA and related system-wide
improvements in recent years
 Integration efforts across agencies
 Capitalization of R&D
 Better measurement of health care expenditures
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Role of Other Government Agencies
 Federal Reserve Board, President’s Council
of Economic Advisors, Treasury,
Congressional Budget Office and others
 Important for filling “gaps” where there
is no constituency:
 Data sharing, services expansion, chain
indexes, and international capital flows
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What works in the Decentralized System
 Resulting system good at providing timely
measures on issues of interest to public and
private decision makers:
 Rich set of monthly current indicators
 Timely quarterly GDP accounts data on key issues
of relevance to policymakers
 Regularly updated measures to reflect changes in
the economy.
 “Big Picture” accuracy through innovation and the
adoption chain indexes, hedonic measures, and
other quantitatively important new methods.
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What Are the Challenges?
 Challenges associated with decentralized
system:
 Providing consistent and well integrated data
 Developing measures on issues/areas with no
constituency and Federal agency management
 Challenges for all systems:
 Lack of well established conceptual foundation and
organizational framework (true of all national
accounts)
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