katherine r. smith, executive director council of professional associations on federal statistics
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(In)Consistency of Economic Data across Federal Statistical Agencies: What Information Professionals Can Do September 29, 2014. Katherine R. Smith, Executive Director Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics. Federal Statistical System. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
(In)Consistency of Economic Data across Federal Statistical Agencies: What Information
Professionals Can Do
September 29, 2014
Katherine R. Smith,Executive Director
Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics
Federal Statistical System• About 100 federal agencies collect data• Thirteen designated (by OMB) as official
statistical agencies• Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census, and
Bureau of Economic Analysis produce economic statistics
• But so do dozens of others• There are also administrative data on
economic phenomena
Federal Statistical System
Search Income on Census Site
• Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS ASEC)
• American Community Survey (ACS)• Survey of Income and Program
Participation (SIPP)• Census 2000 long form• Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates
Program (SAIPE)
Other Federal Statistics on Income
• Internal Revenue Service • Farm Household Income (USDA, Economic
Research Service)• Bureau of Economic Analysis Personal
Income DATA.GOV
1,853 datasets found for "Income"
How Wealthy are Americans?• Survey of Income and Program Participation
(SIPP)• Federal Reserve Board Survey of Consumer
Finance• Federal Reserve Board Flow of Funds Data • Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)• Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)• Internal revenue Service (IRS)• Economic Research Service farm household
wealth
Differences in Other MeasuresSome Notable Examples
• Health insurance coverage–Census, NCHS, AHQR
• Crime Statistics– FBI, BJS
• Immigration–OIS and Census
Differences in Business Classification
• 30% of U.S. establishments are classified as belonging to different industries by BLS and Census
• Census uses IRS tax filing data to develop its establishment list. BLS has access to neither IRS lists, nor the Census list developed with IRS input.
Differences Are Not Surprising
• The phenomena measured or data collected are for different purposes, in different contexts
• Coverage, Time Dimension, Collection Methods differ
• Differences in data treatment or statistical models used.
• Revisions and Differential Discontinuities
Why Do We Care?
• IT’S CONFUSING!• May generate suspicion that only one
estimate is right or lower confidence in the statistical system
• Allocations are based on some measures with multiple measures
• Comparability suffers
What can agencies do ?
• Pick one “official” estimate• Concurrent releases of data• Attempt to standardize definitions–Across the statistical system–One agency at a time
• Do a better job of explaining how measures vary, and why
Bureau of Labor Statistics Taxonomy/Lexicon Initiative
MissionDevelop a BLS-wide, consistent taxonomy (hierarchy of categories or concepts) and lexicon (word list with synonyms) of BLS concepts in plain English geared towards the lay public, to be used in data query tools, document tagging, website search and navigation, and records management.
What’s an Information Specialist to do?
