A blog post from BEA Director Vipin Arora
BEA produces some of the world’s most closely watched economic statistics. That’s because we’re laser focused on delivering innovative statistics that keep pace with the U.S. economy. To do this, we ensure that our research—which lays the foundation for keeping our statistics as timely, accurate, and relevant as possible—prioritizes improving measurement in five key areas.
The first of these is better measuring the drivers of economic growth. To know how much economic growth there is, we need to understand and measure its causes. This includes new technologies, new kinds of capital (or longstanding kinds of capital that we’re learning to measure more accurately), and other sources of productivity growth.
Another research focus is improving the measurement of the impacts of economic growth. Data users want to understand not just how the economy is growing over time, but how that growth affects their lives and businesses. We need to continually improve our understanding of consumer spending and the distribution of economic benefits across states, counties, and households.
BEA also prioritizes research on economic linkages. Businesses have built out complex supply chains. Knowing how American industries are linked with those in other countries or regions of the world is key for understanding our economy.
Another important research area that keeps BEA statistics relevant to our users is filling measurement gaps. BEA’s economic accounts seek to comprehensively measure the U.S. economy. This requires deepening our understanding of parts of the economy that haven’t traditionally been measured in our statistics, like household production and human capital. It also requires us to evaluate and improve existing measures through the discovery of better source data and computational techniques.
Finally, BEA is always striving to improve accuracy and timeliness. Research in this area may seem the least noticeable but is the most important. BEA leads the world in timeliness, and we’re always striving to get better.