Papers
This page provides access to papers and presentations prepared by BEA staff. Abstracts are presented in HTML format; complete papers are in PDF format with selected tables in XLS format. The views expressed in these papers are solely those of the authors and not necessarily those of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis or the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Estimating Regional Price Parities Using New Data on Medical Goods and Services
I report on a project to improve estimates of Regional Price Parities (RPPs) by making use of a large commercial dataset on health care prices, the Health Marketscan dataset. Using the new data, I obtain estimates of regional price levels for health related goods and services that are stable… Read more
Work Context and Industrial Composition Determine the Epidemiological Responses in a Multi-Group SIR Model
Key economic indicators, such as GDP and unemployment rates, provide a useful backdrop for assessing the state of the economy. However, more nuanced statistics can be of use during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we extend the domain of relevance for economic statistics by developing a… Read more
Assessing Residual Seasonality in the U.S. National Income and Product Account Aggregates
There is an ongoing debate on whether residual seasonality is present in the estimates of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in U.S. national accounts and whether it explains the slower quarter-one GDP growth rate in the recent years. This paper aims to bring clarity to this topic by 1)… Read more
Alternative Price and Volume Measures for Commercial Bank and Fund Management Services
In the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts, commercial bank and fund management services grew modestly or declined in volume terms after 2008, despite substantial increases in the levels of assets and liabilities managed by these businesses. These estimates of limited growth result partly… Read more
Preliminary Estimates of the U.S. Space Economy, 2012–2018
Consumer Prices During A Stay-in-Place Policy: Theoretical Inflation for Unavailable Products
Major product categories like full service restaurant meals, live entertainment, and nonessential personal services are unavailable during a stay-in-place policy. As a result, their inflation rates cannot be measured directly. The standard methodology used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS… Read more
Measuring Infrastructure in the Bureau of Economic Analysis National Economic Accounts
Infrastructure provides critical support for economic activity, and assessing its role requires reliable measures. This paper provides an overview of U.S. infrastructure data in the National Economic Accounts. After developing definitions of basic, social, and digital infrastructure, we assess… Read more
Measuring Inequality in the National Accounts
This paper provides context for the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) prototype estimates of the distribution of income. It describes measurement questions, such as what concept of income should be used, and a summary of the results for the 2007–2018 period. The paper also presents a… Read more
Spending by Condition for the Long-Term Care Population Using Medicaid Claims
Health care spending for the nursing home sector has been an understudied topic despite institutionalized long-term care patients often facing higher mortality rates, having numerous and serious comorbidities, and accounting for over $194 billion dollars in personal health care expenditure just… Read more
The Geography of Consumption and Local Economic Shocks: The Case of the Great Recession
Geographic analysis of consumption is often constrained by geographic borders such as counties, but economic agents often cross borders to consume. Using unique card transaction data, we estimate across-county spending flows between firms and consumers for every county in the United States and… Read more