IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedgfe/2025-19.html

Beyond the Streetlight: Economic Measurement in the Division of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve

Author

Abstract

This paper was written for the academic conference held in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Division of Research and Statistics (R&S) of the Federal Reserve Board. The work of the Federal Reserve turns strongly on empirical efforts to understand the structure and state of the economy, and R&S can be thought of as operating a large factory for discovering and developing data and analytical methods to provide evidence relevant to the mission of the Board. This paper, as signaled by its title, illustrates how the measurement research component of the R&S factory often looks far beyond current conventions to meet the needs of the Board—and has done so since its earliest days. It would take a far longer paper to provide a complete history and evolution of measurement activities in R&S; here, we provide an indicative review focusing on selected areas from which, we believe, it is easy to conclude that R&S has been—and likely will continue to be—an important innovator in economic measurement.

Suggested Citation

  • Tomaz Cajner & Carol Corrado & Arthur B. Kennickell, 2025. "Beyond the Streetlight: Economic Measurement in the Division of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2025-019, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2025-19
    DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2025.019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/feds/files/2025019pap.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17016/FEDS.2025.019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aizcorbe, Ana M., 2014. "A Practical Guide to Price Index and Hedonic Techniques," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198702429.
    2. Aditya Aladangady & Shifrah Aron-Dine & Wendy E. Dunn & Laura Feiveson & Paul Lengermann & Claudia R. Sahm, 2016. "The Effect of Hurricane Matthew on Consumer Spending," FEDS Notes 2016-12-02, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    3. Aditya Aladangady & Shifrah Aron-Dine & David B. Cashin & Wendy E. Dunn & Laura Feiveson & Paul Lengermann & Katherine Richard & Claudia R. Sahm, 2018. "High-frequency Spending Responses to the Earned Income Tax Credit," FEDS Notes 2018-06-21, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    4. Ana Aizcorbe, 2006. "Why Did Semiconductor Price Indexes Fall So Fast in the 1990s? A Decomposition," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 44(3), pages 485-496, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David M. Byrne & Stephen D. Oliner & Daniel E. Sichel, 2018. "How Fast are Semiconductor Prices Falling?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(3), pages 679-702, September.
    2. Coulter, Jarod & Strackman, Braden & Wynne, Mark A., 2025. "The problem of quality change in historical price statistics: An illustrative example using Baedeker travel guides," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    3. Aditya Aladangady & Shifrah Aron-Dine & Wendy Dunn & Laura Feiveson & Paul Lengermann & Claudia Sahm, 2021. "From Transaction Data to Economic Statistics: Constructing Real-Time, High-Frequency, Geographic Measures of Consumer Spending," NBER Chapters, in: Big Data for Twenty-First-Century Economic Statistics, pages 115-145, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. repec:nsr:escoed:escoe-dp-2023-02 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Ana Aizcorbe & Jeffrey C. Chen, 2023. "Outlet Substitution Bias Estimates for Ride Sharing and Taxi Rides in New York City," Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2023-02, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence.
    6. Ana M. Aizcorbe & Jeff Chen, 2022. "Outlet Substitution Bias Estimates for Ride Sharing and Taxi Rides in New York City," BEA Working Papers 0192, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    7. Brodeur, Abel & Yousaf, Hasin, 2019. "The Economics of Mass Shootings," IZA Discussion Papers 12728, IZA Network @ LISER.
    8. Murray, James M., 2025. "Scholar spotlights! A curricular intervention to enhance students’ perceptions of relevance and belonging in principles of macroeconomics," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    9. John Lourenze Poquiz, 2024. "Measuring the value of free digital goods," Working Papers 044, The Productivity Institute.
    10. Daniel H. Weinberg & John M. Abowd & Robert F. Belli & Noel Cressie & David C. Folch & Scott H. Holan & Margaret C. Levenstein & Kristen M. Olson & Jerome P. Reiter & Matthew D. Shapiro & Jolene Smyth, 2017. "Effects of a Government-Academic Partnership: Has the NSF-Census Bureau Research Network Helped Improve the U.S. Statistical System?," Working Papers 17-59r, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    11. Diewert, Erwin, 2019. "Quality Adjustment and Hedonics: A Unified Approach," Microeconomics.ca working papers erwin_diewert-2019-2, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 14 Mar 2019.
    12. Ana Aizcorbe & David M. Byrne & Daniel E. Sichel, 2019. "Getting Smart About Phones: New Price Indexes and the Allocation of Spending Between Devices and Services Plans in Personal Consumption Expenditures," NBER Working Papers 25645, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Steimle, Samantha & Ryan, Rebecca & Liu, Sihong & Fisher, Philip A., 2025. "Which form of cash is best for families? Associations between lump sum versus regular payments and food insecurity," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    14. Alexander Daminger, 2021. "Subsidies to Homeownership and Central City Rent," Working Papers 210, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    15. Adam Hale Shapiro, 2026. "Decomposing Supply‐ and Demand‐Driven Inflation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 58(2), pages 365-388, March.
    16. O. Kondratjeva & S. P. Roll & M. Despard & M. Grinstein-Weiss, 2022. "The Impact of Tax Refund Delays on the Experience of Hardship Among Lower-Income Households," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 239-280, June.
    17. Adam Hale Shapiro & Ana Aizcorbe, 2010. "Implications of Consumer Heterogeneity on Price Measures for Technology Goods," BEA Working Papers 0062, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    18. Aizcorbe, Ana & Bridgman, Benjamin & Nalewaik, Jeremy, 2010. "Heterogeneous car buyers: A stylized fact," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 50-53, October.
    19. David M. Byrne, 2022. "The Digital Economy and Productivity," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2022-038, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    20. Morrissey, Taryn W. & Cha, Yun & Wolf, Sharon & Khan, Mariam, 2020. "Household economic instability: Constructs, measurement, and implications," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    21. Brian Adams & Steven D. Sawyer, 2025. "Hedonic price indexes under static pricing: an application to PPI microprocessors," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 60(4), pages 191-203, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C89 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Other
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • E30 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2025-19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ryan Wolfslayer ; Keisha Fournillier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.