Papers
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.
Do U.S. Multinationals Engage In Sequential Choice? Evidence from New Manufacturing Operations in Europe
Despite an extensive literature on the determinants of the foreign location choices by multinational companies, researchers have only recently begun to systematically examine how these companies form their location consideration sets. When considering new foreign locations, do firms evaluate the… Read more
Converting Historical Industry Time Series Data from SIC to NAICS
Estimates of State Price Levels for Consumption Goods and Services: a first brush
This paper develops exploratory estimates of the spatial price differences for consumption goods and services at the U.S. state level. Spatial (place-to-place) price differences are important to regional and other sub-national accounting frameworks as they make possible comparisons of economic… Read more
Treatment of International Research and Development as Investment: Issues and Estimates
This paper presents an analysis of an international component in the R&D satellite account. It provides experimental estimates of the impact of treating R&D as investment on several dimensions of international transactions. It also discusses several important conceptual and… Read more
A Reconciliation between the Consumer Price Index and the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) prepares the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), and the Bureau of Economic Analysis prepares the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) chain-type price index. Both indexes measure the prices paid by consumers for goods and services.… Read more
Implementing a Reconciliation and Balancing Model in the U.S. Industry Accounts
As part of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’ integration initiative (Yuskavage, 2000; Moyer et al., 2004a, 2004b; Lawson et al., 2006), the Industry Accounts Directorate is drawing upon the Stone method (Stone et al., 1942) and Chen (2006) to reconcile the gross operating surplus component… Read more
An Empirical Comparison of Methods for Temporal Distribution and Interpolation at the National Accounts
This study evaluates five mathematical and five statistical methods for temporal disaggregation in an attempt to select the most suitable method(s) for routine compilation of sub-annual estimates through temporal distribution and interpolation in the national accounts at BEA. The evaluation is… Read more
How Should Inventory Investment be Measured in National Accounts?
Keeping Economic Statistics Relevant through Updating the System of National Accounts
From Respondent Debriefings to Pilot Test and Beyond: A Comprehensive Redesign of a Questionnaire Measuring Foreign Direct Investment
In 2004, survey methodologists at the U.S. Census Bureau began a project with the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to aid in the evaluation and redesign of two of their self-administered survey questionnaires. These surveys, one annual and the other quarterly, collect foreign direct… Read more