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Session 25: Skills Session: Comparing Price Measures--CPI/PPI/PCE
Panelists will highlight the similarities, differences, and uses in both the policy and business arenas of the BLS indexes. Noting the recent narrowing of the gap between core CPI inflation and core PCE inflation, they will also point out the differences between these “preferred” consumer price measures.
Sponsors: NABE Statistics Committee and AUBER
Presentations
John Greenlees' slides (PDF)
Brian Moyer's slides (PDF)
Douglas Elmendorf's slides (PDF)
Links of Interest
Price Index Research at the BLS
Economic Research and Data at the Board of Governors
Speakers
Maurine Haver
President
Haver Analytics
Maurine is President and founder of Haver Analytics Inc., an economic consulting and information services company. Prior to starting Haver Analytics in 1978, she was an economist in the economic forecasting group of General Electric in New York, a member of the International Staff of Companie Bull General Electric in Paris and a consultant in the Foreign Currency Exposure Management Group of the Chase Manhattan Bank in London.
Maurine served as President of the National Association of Business Economists (1994-95) and now chairs the NABE campaign for Quality Economic Data that she initiated during her year as president. In her role as Chair of the NABE Statistics Committee, she testifies before Congress on statistical issues, conducts quarterly meetings which bring together producers and users of federal statistics and organizes seminars to help users better understand the statistics available from government and private sources.
Maurine chairs the Business Research Advisory Council of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Bureau of Economic Analysis. She has served as secretary of the Forecasters Club of New York since 1992. She is a past president of the New York Association for Business Economics (1989-90), the Downtown Economists Club (1993-94) and the Money Marketeers of New York University (1998-99). She chaired the board of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics (COPAFS) during 2001-2003. She currently serves on the board of Mutual of America and is a member of the American Economic Association, the American Statistical Association and the National Economists Club.
Maurine holds a B.S. in Economics and Mathematics from Michigan State University, an M.B.A. from the Stern School of New York University and completed her oral exam for a PhD in International Economics at NYU.
John Greenlees
Associate Commissioner for Price Measurement
Bureau of Labor Statistics
John S. Greenlees serves as Associate Commissioner for Prices and Living Conditions at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In that position he is responsible for three Principal Federal Economic Indicators that measure U.S. price change: the Consumer Price Index, Producer Price Index, and International Price Indexes. In addition, Dr. Greenlees is responsible for the Consumer Expenditure Survey program, which measures the spending habits of U.S. households, and for a program of Price and Index Number Research.
Prior to taking on his current position in January 2004, Dr. Greenlees served as a BLS Assistant Commissioner, overseeing the CPI program. From 1985 to 1995 he served under the Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Treasury Department, ultimately as Director of the Office of Economic Analysis. There he worked on numerous policy issues and participated in several interagency working groups.
Dr. Greenlees received a B.A. from UC Berkeley, an M.A. from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. from UCLA, all in Economics. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth and he has been active in international statistical groups. He has published on a variety of economic and statistical topics.
Brian C. Moyer
Deputy Chief, National Income and Wealth Division
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Brian C. Moyer is Deputy Chief of the National Income and Wealth Division at the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). In that position, he is responsible for research to improve the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts, including the estimates of Gross Domestic Product.
Prior to taking his current position in 2004, he served as the Chief of the Annual Industry Branch at BEA where he was responsible for the Annual Input-Output Accounts and the GDP-by-Industry Accounts.
He has a B.A. and a M.A. from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. from the American University, all in economics. He is a member of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth and is active in a number of economic and statistical groups.
Douglas W. Elmendorf
Chief, Macroeconomic Analysis Section, Division of Research & Statistics
Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System
Douglas W. Elmendorf is Assistant Director, Division of Research and Statistics Chief, Macroeconomic Analysis Section at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where he studies both macroeconomics and public economics.
He has been at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System since 200. Previous positions include: Deputy Assistant Secretary, Department of the Treasury, 1999-2001; Senior Economist, Council of Economic Advisers, 1998-1999; Economist, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1995-1998; Associate Analyst/Principal Analyst, Congressional Budget Office, 1993-1995; Assistant Professor, Harvard University, 1989-1994.
His publications include: 'Can Financial Innovation Help to Explain the Reduced Volatility of Economic Activity?'' (with Karen E. Dynan and Daniel E. Sichel), Journal of Monetary Economics (forthcoming); Can Financial Innovation Help to Explain the Reduced Volatility of Economic Activity? (with Karen E. Dynan and Daniel E. Sichel), Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2005-54. Washington: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2005; ''Short-Run Effects of Fiscal Policy with Forward-Looking Financial Markets '' (with David L. Reifschneider), National Tax Journal, vol. 55 (September 2002), pp. 357-386; ''Fiscal Policy and Social Security Policy during the 1990s'' (with Jeffrey B. Liebman and David W. Wilcox), in Jeffrey Frankel and Peter Orszag, ed., American Economic Policy in the 1990s. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002.
He has an A.B., Economics, Princeton University, 1983, and an M.A. in Economics, 1985, and a Ph.D., 1989, both from Harvard University.
