Information Technology and the Data Jungle
More Data Are Available Faster, But The Search For Meaning Continues
Rosemary D. Marcuss was NABE president in 2004-2005. She is currently the deputy director of the Bureau of Economic Analysis. She has been engaged in the analysis of developments in the U.S. economy and in U.S. fiscal policy for over 30 years. Prior to her present post, she was the Assistant Director for Tax Analysis at the Congressional Budget Office. Also, she has been an economist and managing consultant at Data Resources, Inc, a National Science Foundation Fellow (Economics), and on the junior staff of the Council of Economic Advisers. She has been a board member of the National Tax Association and the National Economists Club. She has also served as a member of the Washington, D.C. Tax Revision Commission. She holds a PhD. in Economics from the University of Maryland.
This stroll down memory lane highlights the changes brought about by technology that enable economists to process more data faster than could have been imagined when Marcuss began her career in 1968. The challenges of the “data jungle” remain, however. There must be an ongoing effort to know precisely what each economic- statistic measures, why it matters, and to whom. NABE has been, and will continue to be, in the forefront of this effort.
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