NABE’s “Economic Statistics . . . From Theory to Practice”: The Atkins Friendly Seminar

The NABE “Economic Statistics . . . From Theory to Practice” seminar offered AUBERites the opportunity to get up to speed, refresh, or replenish some of the “little grey matter.” The conference, organized around the theme of helping young analysts learn about available and useful data, proved valuable. The program highlighted data issues around major federal data providers such as Census, BEA, and BLS.

Each conference session partnered data providers and data users. For example, one learned of the nuances of flow of funds accounting and where to find the data from the Federal Reserve office that generates the estimates. Many may have heard of the flow of funds accounts, but I venture to say few people know of their usefulness, how the accounts are calculated, or where to find them. Moreover, the usefulness of the data was highlighted by a presentation of how data were used to help an analyst, giving one the opportunity to pause and ask two of the three most important and fundamental AUBER questions: So what? Can I use that idea?

The conference provided attendees with well organized presentations and useful handouts. On this last point, I distributed the conference handouts to a few graduate students, who, to be sure, were not exactly waiting with excitement and good cheer. But I can say with some exactitude that they found the materials eye-opening. Now as they rush to the “point-and-shoot” feature of their new found econometrics software, they may have some idea about what data they might be loading.

Coming at the end of the academic calendar (May 2-4), the conference timing was poor, and only a few AUBER members attended. The conference format and materials, however, would be useful for our members if the conference is offered again.

For matters of completeness, I would note that the conference format failed to sufficiently energize me to ask the third most important AUBER question: Is it fattening? On reflection, however, I can now truthfully say the conference was “low-carb” and “high-energy protein.”

Keith Schwer
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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