Putting it All Together: Creating an Integrated System of Data and Statistics on Household Income, Consumption and Wealth

Information on households' income, consumption and wealth is critical for a variety of policy purposes, for understanding inequality and other aspects of well-being, and for research on many aspects of economic behavior. For at least the past 40 years, there has been a growing great need for detailed and reliable micro data for these purposes. Federal agencies—including the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Federal Reserve Board, and others—are often seen as the primary sources of such data. However, there are differences across sources in definitions, the extent of comparable coverage of content in all three areas, the representation of the upper tail of these highly skewed variables, the frequency of data series, and many other factors. Moreover, it is difficult, at best, to link such data across sources to address shortcomings in any one set of data. Recognizing the data needs and the current difficulties of serving those needs, the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine assembled an expert panel to chart a way forward. The resulting consensus report from the group, "Creating an Integrated System of Data and Statistics on Household Income, Consumption and Wealth: Time to Build" was issued in 2024. The report proposes to build on the existing work in government agencies, within a framework that would promote deeper collaboration and consistency in moving toward the goal of creating analytically useful information on the joint distribution of income, consumption and wealth. As discussed in the report, there is potential for linking (existing or new) surveys, a variety of sources of state and federal government administrative, and commercial other types of private data. The presenters for the session include three of the committee members who produced the report. The discussant is a government official who has the knowledge and insight to address the ways in which government agencies may understand and react to the goals and proposed methods described in the report.