PDS Awards First Certificates in Two-Track Program

For the first time in its seven-year history, NABE’s Professional Development Seminar (PDS) offered two tracks and awarded participants a “Certificate in Economic Measurement.”

Speakers from data agencies that produce key indicators and private sector economists who use those data series covered a wide range of topics under this year’s PDS theme “Making Sense of the Economic Puzzle.”  The seminar was held April 12-14 at the Sheraton Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia.

The more than 100 attendees gave the sold-out seminar high marks and welcomed an opportunity to choose between sessions in Track “A” and Track “B” that were designed for both early career and more experienced professionals, respectively.

Focusing on data improvement issues in a tight budget climate, Department of Commerce Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Rebecca Blank told seminar attendees at an April 13 luncheon that economists should have had better economic data to warn of the recent financial crisis and recession. “It’s not that we should have reported better data, but a question of whether we could have done a better job if the overall quality of data were higher.”

Blank offered a list of data improvements that she said could make a difference in projecting future downturns and help policymakers be better prepared, including: more timely survey data on household wealth, better industry level details on output, and more longitudinal data to get a clearer picture of births and deaths of firms. “These will be tough budget years,” she said, urging that policymakers “use the crisis to look closely at our priorities and gaps in data.”

The NABE Foundation, the sponsor of the seminar since it began in 2004, awarded six scholarships to this year’s PDS.   Two of the recipients are college professors and the others are students or early career professionals. The recipients expressed appreciation for the award and most said that, were it not for the scholarships, they would not have been able to attend.

Other Firsts—Webcast, Flash Drives for Laptops

There were other firsts in this year’s PDS.   The Track “A” sessions were webcast, making it the first NABE meeting to be streamed live on the Internet. Those who attended the PDS via the webcast were able to ask questions of the instructors using the “chat” function, and all of these “virtual attendees” earned their certificate, just as if they attended in person.

 In addition, each of the attendees received a flash drive preloaded with all of the presentations and many took advantage of the free WIFi access to follow speakers’ slide shows on their laptops during the sessions.   Laptop users could also add their own notes to writable fields in each of the presentations and many chose this option rather than taking pen to paper.  And when the seminar ended, they had all the presentations, including those they had not attended, on the flash drives.  There was no need to tote or pack a four-inch thick loose-leaf notebook full of printed presentations and other handouts.

The PDS has a solid track record as a recruiting tool for NABE and this year was no exception.   Dozens of new members attended, including Jaclyn S. Anderson, associate economic analyst at Waddell & Reed Investment Management Company in Overland Park, Kansas.   She said that she enjoyed the seminar and “found the use of laptops and the flash drive very helpful and I’ve used the flash drive to review the presentations.”  She hopes to attend again next year.

Two Tracks Offered More Choices

An informal survey of several attendees indicates that many of this year’s seminar participants selected sessions from both Tracks A and B rather staying with one or the other.  They welcomed the chance to choose among concurrent sessions from both tracks.

Track A was designed for learning central statistical concepts such as measuring employment, gross domestic product and the national accounts, and inflation indexes.   Organizers created Track B for veteran PDS attendees and others wanting a deeper understanding of data series and reports such as the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve, the Census Bureau’s Economic Census data program, and measures of regional economic activity. 

New member Jaclyn Anderson said she “chose all Track A except for Track B-Fed Balance Sheet. Track A applied more directly to my work.  It was useful to have two tracks because it provided more options.” 

Simon Medcalfe, assistant professor of finance at Augusta State University in Augusta, Georgia, and one of the scholarship recipients, selected some sessions from both Tracks A and B.   “I picked from both tracks depending on topic relevance. I found the Power Points useful in advance to determine the best session to go to. Two tracks are nice in that it gives you choices that best fit your needs,” he said.

The choice made by Dustin Chambers, assistant professor of economics at Salisbury University on Maryland’s eastern shore and a scholarship recipient, was “to stay exclusively with Track B, but there were a number of sessions in Track A that looked interesting, so I suppose future participants would find this ability to switch between tracks to be desirable.”

Scholarship Winners Cite Substance, Networking Benefits

Both Medcalfe and Chambers said the seminar’s timely topics and substantial offerings, including tools for creating new measures, were valuable for their research as well as their classroom teaching. Medcalfe said that he “particularly liked the way the sessions were set up with generators of data in the same session as users of data.”  He was drawn to the PDS initially by sessions on seasonal adjustment and construction.

Now working on his own measures based on what he learned, Medcalfe said he gained a great deal of useful information from the presentation by Keith Phillips of the Dallas Federal Reserve on a series of economic indicator he developed. “All of these presentations helped me formulate methodology for creating our own index. Other presentations gave me information on obtaining the data for the indexes.”

While the administration of Augusta University and the business school have been very supportive of his professional development, Medcalfe said “with the current state budget woes it would have been unlikely that they would have funded the trip without the scholarship.”

Professors Find New Ideas for Economic Modeling

Chambers of Salisbury University said the main value of the PDS to him was its offering of  “very practical knowledge regarding both the construction and use of public datasets, and doing so in such an abbreviated timeframe.”  Plus, it gave him a “great opportunity to meet young professionals, as well as influential economists in the public and private arenas.  This opportunity to network, apart from just the splendid learning opportunities, really leveraged the value of the seminar.”

Like Medcalfe, Chambers said the seminar enhances both his teaching and research efforts. “I'm now able to provide students with deeper insights into the construction of the public macroeconomic data used in my courses.  This knowledge also reinforces my research efforts, aiding in the construction and interpretation of new models,” he said.

Leo-Rey Gordon, a scholarship recipient and a Ph.D. student at the University of Delaware, particularly values the networking opportunities available through NABE, as he prepares to start his career either in the financial sector or teaching.   He was introduced to NABE a few years ago and has been active through Get Connected, the program for early and mid-career professionals. 

“I joined NABE as a first-year Master’s student and I saw NABE as a means by which I could get involved in various aspects of my future profession, whether it be by networking, accessing information, or myself contributing as a resource for others,” Gordon said. “First and foremost the scholarship enabled me to attend the PDS, without the funding it would have been extremely difficult for me to attend,” he said.

Diana Saenz, a PDS scholarship recipient who is finishing her Master’s in applied economics at Florida State University in Tallahassee, said the seminar was “an excellent way to add to my knowledge of statistical techniques commonly used by practicing economists. As a student, it was also a great opportunity to meet people who are passionate about their work. In the presentations, I picked up a few new ideas to apply in my current projects. The speakers were particularly receptive to questions and went out of their way to explain their points.”

As someone who is keenly interested in forecasting and market analysis, Saenz said that she was particularly impressed that the PDS features “presentations that often came from two perspectives, those who compile the data and those who routinely use it in their work.”

The other 2010 scholarship recipients are Emily McGrath of the Group of 30 in Washington, D.C., and Troy Wittek, a research assistant at Inforum, University of Maryland.

Progress in Building Educational Programs

NABE President Lynn Reaser congratulated the organizers of this year’s seminar, including Richard Wobbekind, chair of NABE’s education committee, and the three co-chairs:  Maurine Haver, a past president of NABE and president of Haver Analytics in New York; Jack Kleinhenz, the immediate past chairman of the NABE Foundation and head of Kleinhenz & Associates in Cleveland; and Rosemary Marcuss, a past president of NABE and director for research, analysis, and statistics at the Internal Revenue Service.

Awarding NABE’s “Certificate in Economic Measurement” and expanding the seminar by offering two tracks were the first steps toward achieving the NABE Board’s goal of launching a comprehensive continuing education program in the fields of business economics,” said Wobbekind, associate dean and professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and vice president of NABE.

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