This page provides access to papers and presentations prepared by BEA staff. Abstracts are presented in HTML format; complete papers are in PDF format with selected tables in XLS format. The views expressed in these papers are solely those of the authors and not necessarily those of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis or the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Current Consumption and Future Income Growth: Synthetic Panel Evidence

Using group means computed from twenty years of high quality survey data, I show a strong and robust relation between households' consumption growth and subsequent realizations of their income growth, including realizations as distant as six years later.  The relation appears in multiple… Read more

Jeremy J. Nalewaik
WP2004-4
Last Updated
Published
JEL Code(s)None Assigned

International Fragmentation of Production and the Intrafirm Trade of U.S. Multinational Companies

An aspect of globalization that has attracted increased attention in recent years is trade in intermediate inputs associated with the fragmentation of production across national borders. This trade takes the form of intrafirm transactions when production stages in different countries are… Read more

Maria Borga, William J. Zeile
WP2004-2
Published
JEL Code(s)F23

The Reliability of the State Personal Income Estimates

A new study by BEA finds that the quarterly estimates of state personal income were reliable indicators in the period 1991-2001. That is, they were generally successful in indicating whether a state’s economy was expanding or contracting, whether a state’s economy was accelerating or… Read more

Robert L. Brown, Bruce T. Grimm, Marian B. Sacks
WP2004-1
Published
JEL Code(s)D31

NIPA Corporate Profits and Reported Earnings: A Comparison and Measurement Issues

The users of the national income and product accounts (NIPAs) often compare the growth rates of NIPA profit measures with those of other publicly available measures of reported earnings, such as Standard & Poor's 500 earnings. Differences between the NIPA profit measures and the other… Read more

Charles Ian Mead, Brent R. Moulton, Kenneth Petrick
P2004-1
Published
JEL Code(s)None Assigned

Trade in Goods Within Multinational Companies: Survey-Based Data and Findings for the United States of America

This paper discusses the data on U.S. intrafirm trade in goods collected in BEA's surveys of the operations of U.S. multinational firms and foreign-owned U.S. affiliates. It also examines patterns that emerge from the data, with a particular focus on the intrafirm-trade shares of U.S. exports… Read more

William J. Zeile
P2003-6
Published
JEL Code(s)None Assigned

New Quality Adjusted Price Indexes for Nonresidential Structures

Accurate, quality adjusted prices for nonresidential structures are necessary for a good understanding of the functioning of the economy. In order to improve its estimates of nonresidential structures’ prices, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has developed new quality adjusted price indexes… Read more

Bruce T. Grimm
WP2003-3
Published
JEL Code(s)None Assigned

Survey Data Collection Over the Internet at the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

This paper summarizes the progress the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has made in converting its paper-based survey data collection system to an electronic reporting system that collects data via the Internet. The paper describes the pilot program that resulted in BEA's Automated Survey… Read more

Patricia C. Walker
P2003-5
Published
JEL Code(s)None Assigned

Working with Chain-type Aggregates: A Few Tricks

Brent R. Moulton
P2003-3
Published
JEL Code(s)None Assigned

Globalization and Multinational Companies: What Are the Questions, and How Well Are We Doing in Answering Them?

This paper looks at the U.S. experience and uses it as a benchmark for identifying the key questions that are being asked about the role and influence of MNC's and the types of statistics that are required to answer those questions. The paper goes on to assess whether the U.S. statistics that… Read more

J. Steven Landefeld, Ralph Kozlow
P2003-2
Published
JEL Code(s)None Assigned

Measuring Globalization: The Experience of the United States of America

This paper outlines BEA's program of data collection on the operations of U.S. parent companies, their foreign affiliates, and U.S. affiliates of foreign companies.  It also describes a number of related activities that organize the data in ways useful for analysis, derive additional,… Read more

Obie G. Whichard
P2003-4
Published
JEL Code(s)None Assigned