U.S. Commerce Department Hosts First Meeting of the 2010 Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- U.S. Commerce Department Acting Deputy Secretary Rebecca M. Blank welcomed members of the newly-formed Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee (FESAC) today during the group's first meeting as a function of the Commerce Department. The committee will advise agency heads of the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) -- both within the Department of Commerce -- as well as the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on statistical methodology and other technical matters related to the collection, tabulation, and analysis of federal economic statistics.

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"The cross-disciplinary perspective of this new advisory committee is important to the betterment of the federal economic system," Blank said. "The expertise of our members will help inform government decisions on both what to collect and how to collect it within a discussion of the economy as a whole."

FESAC was originally an advisory committee housed within the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, and on October 5, 2010, was re-chartered under the Department of Commerce's Economic and Statistics Administration (ESA). The committee's mission remains the same -- to recommend research to address important technical problems arising in federal economic statistics.

Committee members are appointed by the Secretary of Commerce and include noted economists, statisticians, survey methodologists, and behavioral scientists, many who have been recognized for their scientific and professional achievements.  The new DOC FESAC members include: Professor Joseph Altonji, Professor of Economics, Yale University; Professor Ernst Berndt, Professor of Applied Economics, MIT Sloan School of Management; Mr. Barry Bosworth, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution; Professor F. Jay Breidt, Professor and Chair, Department of Statistics, Colorado State University; Professor Don Dillman, Distinguished Professor of Government and Public Policy, Social & Economic Sciences Research Center, Washington State University; Professor Pinelopi Goldberg, Professor of Economics, Yale University; Professor Bronwyn Hall, Professor of the Graduate School, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley; Professor John Haltiwanger, Professor of Economics, University of Maryland; Professor Valerie Ramey, Professor of Economics, University of California, San Diego; Mr. Richard Rippe, Managing Director and Economist, ISI Group, New York, NY; (Chairman of FESAC) Professor Matthew Shapiro, Professor of Economics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI; and Professor Kirk Wolter, Senior Vice President of Statistics and Methodology and Professor of Statistics at the University of Chicago.

For additional information on FESAC, go to the web link: http://www.esa.doc.gov/fesac/.

Contact: Jacque Mason, news media, 202-482-5641

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau