STATISTICS UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT: IMPROVING THE CONSUMER PRICE INDEX

The position taken by William Barnett in this panel discussion is that federal government agencies, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, view researchers as being among those who comprise the audience for produced data, but not necessarily the most important members of that audience. Recently political pressures from Congress have been at center stage. Barnett takes the position that more focus on the data needs of economic researchers and econometricians would result in substantial gains in data quality and sample size available to economists. As an example to illustrate his point, he displays the results possible by linking Commerce Department data with the early NBER data of Simon Kuznets to produce a data base covering a much longer period of time than is included in the official Commerce Department data alone. The panel discussion that follows Barnett's taped comments emphasizes the concerns of the Commission that recently announced its recommendations regarding revision of the CPI.