How the government arrives at its official economic statistics deeply influences the lives of every American. Social Security payments and even some wages are linked to import prices through official inflation rates; special measures of national product are necessary for valid comparisons of vital social indicators such as relative standards of living and relative poverty. Poor information can result in poor policies. And yet, federal statistics agencies have been crippled by serious budget cuts and more cuts may lie ahead.
Questioning the quality of current data and analytical...

In recent years the definition of an economic transfer a payment to an individual or institution that does not arise out of current productive activity has been subject to even wider interpretation. This volume addresses that trend and introduces new methods of measuring transfers in the American economy.
Social security, private pension benefits, housing, and health care are traditional kinds of transfers. Accurate measurements of the degree and effect of these and of other, newly interpreted transfers are vital to economic policy making. Though this volume is not directly concerned with...