Transcript (In)Consistency of Economic Data across Federal

(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 Measures
Some 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
Mission
Develop 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?
Thank You!
Katherine Smith
[email protected]
703-836-0404
Visit us on Twitter @COPAFS