CRIW Conference: Big Data for 21st Century Economic Statistics

Katharine G. Abraham, Ron S. Jarmin, Brian Moyer, and Matthew D. Shapiro, Organizers

March 15-16, 2019

Washington, DC

Conference Code of Conduct

Friday, March 15
8:30 am
Continental Breakfast
Session 1, Chair: Katharine Abraham, University of Maryland and NBER
9:00 am
Welcome from Conference Organizers and Opening Remarks from James Poterba, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NBER
9:10 am

Re-Engineering Key National Economic Indicators (slides)
Discussant: Robert C. Feenstra, University of California, Davis and NBER
9:50 am

From Transactions Data to Economic Statistics: Constructing Real-Time, High-Frequency, Geographic Measures of Consumer Spending (slides)
Discussant: Chris Wheat, JP Morgan Chase Institute
10:30 am
Break
Session 2, Chair: David Wilcox, Federal Reserve Board, retired
11:00 am

Off to the Races: A Comparison of Machine Learning and Alternative Data for Predicting Economic Indicators (slides)
(discussant slides)
Discussant: Francis X. Diebold, University of Pennsylvania and NBER
11:40 am

A Machine Learning Analysis of Seasonal and Cyclical Sales in Weekly Scanner Data (slides)
Discussant: Gary Cornwall, Bureau of Economic Analysis
12:20 pm
Lunch and Keynote Address:
Introduction, Ron Jarmin, U.S. Census Bureau

How Statistics Netherlands Intends to Use Big Data to Improve Official Statistics, While Reducing Costs and Lowering Burden
Tjark Tjin-A-Tsoi, Director General, Statistics Netherlands

Session 3, Chair: Barry Johnson, Internal Revenue Service
1:30 pm

Investigating Alternative Data Sources to Reduce Respondent Burden in United States Census Bureau Retail Economic Data Products (slides)
1:50 pm

The Scope and Impact of Open Source Software: A Framework for Analysis and Preliminary Cost Estimates (slides)
2:10 pm

Improving the Accuracy of Economic Measurement with Multiple Data Sources: The Case of Payroll Employment Data (slides)
2:30 pm

Automating Response Evaluation for Franchising Questions on the 2017 Economic Census (slides)
2:50 pm
Break
Session 4, Chair: David Wessel, Brookings Institution
3:20 pm

Valuing Housing Services in the Era of Big Data: A User Cost Approach Leveraging Zillow Microdata (slides)
Discussant: Raven Molloy, Federal Reserve Board of Governors
4:00 pm

Quantifying Productivity Growth in Health Care Using Insurance Claims and Administrative Data (slides)
Discussant: Helen G. Levy, University of Michigan and NBER
4:40 pm

Nowcasting the Local Economy: Using Yelp Data to Measure Economic Activity
Discussant: Michael Cafarella, MIT CSAIL
5:20 pm
Adjourn
5:30 pm
CRIW Membership Meeting
Katharine Abraham, University of Maryland and NBER
Saturday, March 16
8:30 am
Continental Breakfast
Session 5, Chair: Emi Nakamura, University of California at Berkeley and NBER
9:00 am

Transforming Naturally Occurring Text Data into Economic Statistics: The Case of Online Job Vacancy Postings (slides)
Discussant: Ayşegül Şahin, Princeton University and NBER
9:40 am

Using Public Data to Generate Industrial Classification Codes (slides)
10:00 am

Measuring Export Price Movements With Administrative Trade Data (slides)
10:20 am

Big Data in the U.S. Consumer Price Index: Experiences & Plans (slides)
10:40 am
Break
Session 6, Chair: Brent Moulton, Bureau of Economic Analysis, retired
11:10 am

Estimating the Benefits of New Products (slides)
Estimating the Benefits of New Products: Some Approximations
Discussant: Marshall B. Reinsdorf, Independent Consultant
11:50 am
Pick up boxed lunch
Session 7, Chair: Daniel Goroff, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
12:00 pm

Securing Commercial Data for Economic Statistics
12:40 pm
Concluding Session
1:00 pm
Adjourn