With today's cancellation by the BLS of the September jobs data and other such cancellations, major news media and others have published stories on the impacts of the government shutdown on economic statistical data:
- How to Track the Economy During A Government Shutdown, Josh Mitchell and Jeffrey Sparshott, October 1, WSJ.
- Federal government shutdown: The data casualties, Drew DeSilver, October 2, Pew Research Center.
- Without Key Jobs Data, Markets And Economists Left Guessing, Marilyn Geewax, October 3, NPR News.
- Shutdown clogs government's biz data pipeline, Paul Davidson, October 3, USA Today.
- The Shutdown’s Data Blackout, Katharine Abraham and John Haltiwanger, op-ed, October 4, NYTimes.
While I'm sorry for the effect of the shutdown on the federal statistical agencies and the rest of the federal government, I welcome the news coverage to help communicate the importance of these agencies. As I've done with other blog entries, I'll maintain a list below of subsequent news stories that I become aware of. Please email any you don't see on the list.
I'd like to see the news coverage continue. The WSJ piece above has a list of the private and public data reports this month. Are there others not on the list? For example, I notice they don't include any reports from the Department of Agriculture or Department of Energy (ERS, NASS, and EIA). I also note the more extensive Quandl list of U.S. government data providers.
In case you missed stories on the effects of the FY13 budget cuts on the statistical agencies, I list those here:
- Fur Flies Over Lost Mink Census as Cuts Hit U.S. Economic Data, Lorraine Woellert, September 6, Bloomberg News
- Why We Need Federal Statistical Data for States and Counties, Mark D. Partridge, Stephan J. Goetz, and Maureen R. Kilkenny, Choices Magazine.
- Some Economic Data Face Budget Ax, Jonathan House and Sarah Portlock, September 26, WSJ.
For more on the FY13 cuts, you might also look at my pieces:
Additional stories [to be updated as I become aware of them]:
- Other Ways to Get Your Jobs Data, Catherine Rampell, October 4, NYTimes.
- US shutdown prompts investors 'to cut ag exposure', October 4, AgriMoney.com
- No shutdown for corn, soybeans, Ron and Sue Mortensen, October 4, Agriculture.com
- Counterpoint: Traders, A Few Weeks Without Government Data Won't Kill You, Urban Lehner, October 3, Progressive Farmer.
- To Stop the Craziness in Washington, Fund the Census, Teresa Tritch, October 4, NYTimes.
- Will Shutdown Screw Up Next Month’s Jobs Report Too?, Eric Morath, October 4, WSJ.
- The Government Shutdown Is Terrible for Transparency, Matt Berman and Patrick Reis, October 3, National Journal.
- Construction Spending In August Is... Unknown Because Of The Federal Government Shutdown As Industry's Recovery Is Threatened, Press Release, October 1, Associated General Contractors of America.
- No Jobs Report Means Economists Chew on Football Not Data, Victoria Stillwell, October 4, Bloomberg News.
- US policy makers fear flying blind, Robin Harding, October 4, Financial Times.
- A fact-checker's nightmare: Shutdown shutters Census, BLS, other sites, Louis Jacobsen, October 1, Tamba Bay Times Politifact.com.
- Special Social Explorer Offer During the Government Shutdown Because of the shutdown, Oxford University Press and the Social Explorer team will open up access to Social Explorer – a US Census demographics website – for the next two weeks. Social Explorer offers users Census data from 1790 to 2010 and American Community Survey data from 2005 to 2012.
- Sorry, Come Back Later (Make an Educated Guess in the Meantime), Terri Ann Lowenthal's October 7 blog entry for the Census Project.
- EIA can operate through Oct. 11 in case of government shutdown -official, September 30, Reuters.
- Data vacuum clogs farm markets, Roxana Hegeman, October 8, AP.
- When Pig Farmers Fly Blind, Matthew Yglesias, October 7, Slate.com.
- COPING WITH THE SHUTDOWN: FEDERAL DATA, Michal Migurski, October 3, Code for America.
- Commodity markets will go dark if shutdown continues, Jack Kemp, October 2, Reuters.
- How to get census data during the government shutdown, D'Vera Cohn, October 8, Pew Research Center
- The National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) provides, free of charge, aggregate census data and GIS-compatible boundary files for the United States between 1790 and 2012.
- Federal shutdown forces Cargill, Smithfield to change hog pricing. Alyce Hinton, October 7, Reuters.
- How Can You Run the Economy Without Any Data?, Patrick Reis, October 10, National Journal.
- Here's That Inflation Data Our Incompetent Government Isn't Producing--And It's Not Pretty, Bruce Upbin, October 15, Forbes.
- When Can We Expect Economic Data?, Jeffrey Sparshott and Sarah Portlock, October 17, WSJ.
- Markets Adapting to Lack of USDA Data, Pro Farm Editors.
- USDA Announces Cancellation and Postponement of Selected Reports Impacted by the Lapse in Federal Funding, October 17, USDA press release.
- Economists Fear 'Flying Blind' Without Government Data, Marilyn Geewax, October 17, NPR.
- US Census Data Likely Rescheduled Next Week, Others Unclear, Kasra Kangarloo, October 17, MNI.
- Flood of U.S. economic data set to wash up on Wall Street, Lucia Mutikani, October 17, MSN.
- Taking Stock after the Shutdown and in Wake of Budget Negotiations, Kitty Smith, COPAFS, October 18.
- Economic Data Starts Flowing Again, Nelson D. Schwartz, October 21, NYTimes Economix.
I thank APDU, C-FARE, and COPAFS for making me aware of some of the above stories.
See also the ASA webpage, Support of Federal Statistical System.
See other ASA Science Policy blog entries. For ASA science policy updates, follow @ASA_SciPol on Twitter. For more on ASA science policy, see http://amstat.org/policy/.