Creating an Integrated System of Data and Statistics on Household Income, Consumption, and Wealth Time to Build (2024) / Chapter Skim
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The goal of this report is to provide recommendations for developing an improved 21st century data system for measuring the extent to which economic prosperity is shared by households throughout the population and for understanding how the distribution of resources is affected by government policy and economic events. This report provides guidance on developing consistent definitions of household income, consumption, and wealth; analyzes and compares relevant data sources and currently produced estimates; recommends steps to improve the quality, integration, and comprehensiveness of the underlying data to support the production of standard statistics to inform the public and policymakers; and recommends ways to facilitate access to the data required to support research on a wide array of relevant topics.
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In addition, receipt of government-provided in-kind benefits or the service flows associated with asset ownership may be important for the measurement of both consumption and income. Conclusion 2-3: Multiple definitions of household income, consumption, and wealth are needed to examine different policy and research questions ranging from the impacts of PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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and a transparent guide to its construction. The recent "Beyond GDP" efforts undertaken by the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination reflect international movements to develop measures of economic wellbeing that are broader than the standard per-capita gross domestic product (GDP)
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Census Bureau, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Division of PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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Recognizing that the work must be done in phases and that reaching the end goal will take time, the panel calls for more integrated efforts to produce estimates that are consistent across agency boundaries. Recommendation 3-1: In the next three to five years, statistical agencies should build on their current initiatives to publish improved statistics of household income, consumption, expenditures, and wealth.
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Recommendation 3-2: Relevant statistical agencies (Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau, the Statistics of Income division of the IRS, and the Federal Reserve Board) should collaboratively publish a major report every three years that compares levels and trends among the household income, consumption, expenditure, and wealth statistical series using the improved measures as specified in Recommendation 3-1.
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Research also shows that the distributions of income, consumption, and wealth and, in turn, economic wellbeing depend on where people live. The capacity to produce demographic and geographic detail in statistical estimates relies on the availability of information from microdata sources at both the individual and household PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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To produce ICW measures, an integrated system combines multiple data sources, so it needs careful examination of data quality during the process. The current datasets available to produce new and improved ICW estimates and integrated ICW data include household survey data (e.g., the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey, Consumer PREPUBLICATION COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOFS
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DATA SOLUTIONS Producing integrated statistics will involve choosing among input data sources. Further, because of a limited ability to directly link data inputs as well as other shortcomings of inputs, producing integrated statistics will require decisions about models and methods for combining, imputing, or simulating one or more measures (e.g., wealth or consumption)
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Recommendation 5-1: The chief statistician and the National Secure Data Service should work together to create a coordinating entity to solve administrative, legal, and technical challenges to integrate data from multiple federal entities (e.g., Bureau of Economic Analysis, Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Statistics of Income [IRS]
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Recommendation 5-4: In the initial phase of work, the coordinating entity, in collaboration with the relevant statistical agencies, should explore statistical matching and other methods to combine relevant publicly accessible datasets (e.g., Survey of Consumer Finances, Consumer Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, Consumer Expenditure Survey, American Community Survey, Survey of Income and Program Participation) to serve as a bridge to a comprehensive integrated dataset.
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all have roles to play as the work the panel envisions proceeds. The relevant statistical agencies have already begun collaborations to improve data access and data use.
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Recommendation 6-1: In the initial phase of building the proposed ICW data infrastructure, the coordinating entity, in collaboration with relevant statistical agencies, should jointly develop a risk-utility framework and a combination of traditional disclosure limitation strategies and privacy-enhancing technologies to support the agencies' publication of summary statistics of household income, consumption, and wealth. Recommendation 6-2: The coordinating entity, in collaboration with relevant statistical agencies, should propose options for a National Secure Data Service pilot to be created through which approved researchers would be allowed to access linked microdata consistent with standard definitions of income, consumption, and wealth through the National Secure Data Service.
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Next, agencies will focus on expanding work to blend key survey and administrative data sources to enhance the accuracy, detail, and timeliness of ICW statistics. Finally, the longer-term plan involves the challenging tasks of establishing secure modes for researchers to access the blended, linked dataset, expanding the data elements to include greater demographic and geographic detail, and creating greater capacity in the underlying data to support longitudinal analyses.
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