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Article: A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Data Bank: A Real Time Data Set for Macroeconomists.(Statistical Data Included)
- Article from:
- Business Review (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)
- Article date:
- September 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In October 1999, the U.S. government dramatically revised its data series on real gross domestic product, the best measure of the economy's total output. The new data showed that the economy had been growing somewhat faster over the previous decade than had been reported earlier. When data are revised, economists face unique problems when forecasting, studying the economy, and analyzing economic policy.
For example, economists are constantly trying new methods of forecasting the economy. An economist develops a new forecasting method by taking data about the economy, such as real output, unemployment, interest rates, and inflation rates, then relating those ...