The Shiskin Award
The annual Julius Shiskin Award for Economic Statistics was established in 1979 by the Washington Statistical Society and is now co-sponsored by the National Association for Business Economics. It is given in recognition of unusually original and important contributions in the development of economic statistics or in the use of economic statistics in interpreting the economy.
Tom Mesenbourg Wins 2011 Shiskin Award
DALLAS, TX—Tom Mesenbourg, deputy director of the U.S. Census Bureau, has been selected to
receive the 2011 Julius Shiskin Memorial Award for Economic Statistics.
Given on an annual basis in recognition of unusually original and important contributions in the
development of economic statistics or in the use of statistics in interpreting the economy, the Shiskin
Award is sponsored by three organizations: the Washington Statistical Society, the National
Association for Business Economics, and the Business and Economics Section of the American
Statistical Association (ASA). Mesenbourg is the 38th recipient of the award, and the Washington
Statistical Society and the ASA section will join NABE in honoring him at the 2011 NABE Annual
Meeting in Dallas.
The Shiskin Award citation notes that Mr. Mesenbourg was selected as the 2011 recipient in
recognition of "his contributions to developing and advancing economic statistics programs that
meet the needs of a rapidly changing economy." In its announcement about the award, the
Washington Statistical Society (WSS) stated that, "[Mr. Mesenbourg's] major contributions to
economic statistics include expanding coverage of services, introducing innovative classification
systems of economic activity, and providing new data on the impact of technology. Although the
direct impact of these contributions [is most apparent in] in Census Bureau programs, he [also]
developed and implemented them by working with other federal statistical agencies. Through this
interagency cooperation, he was able to greatly enhance the usefulness of the new programs to other
agencies. Thus, [he] has been a key leader in efforts to better integrate and improve statistics across
statistical agencies, particularly the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis,
and the Census Bureau. His leadership and collaborative efforts have not only enhanced the
usefulness of new Census Bureau programs, but also has significantly improved the consistency,
coverage, and accuracy of the data compiled by these three agencies."
Prior to his appointment as deputy director of the U.S. Census Bureau in 2008, Mr. Mesenbourg
served as the bureau's associate director for Economic Programs (2005-2008), as assistant director
for Economic Programs (1994-2005), and as chief of the Economic Census and Surveys Division
(1991-1994). In 2004, he was the recipient of a Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Senior
Executives, the U.S. government's highest award for career executives. Most recently, as deputy
director and chief operating officer of the Census Bureau, he played a critical role in the 2010
Decennial Census that was completed under budget and on-time.
Mr. Mesenbourg joined the Census Bureau staff in 1972. He became chief of the Economic Census
Staff in 1986, and was responsible for the planning and processing of the 1987 Census of
Agriculture and the 1987 Economic Census.
He became chief of the Economic Census and Surveys Division in October 1991, and directed the
planning and processing of the 1992 Census of Agriculture and the 1992 Economic Census. During
his time as division chief, he was chairman of the Statistics 2000 Task Force, a multiagency group
that identified opportunities for reducing business reporting burdens, cutting costs, and improving
efficiency. He also planned and organized the 1991 International Conference on Classification that
led to the development of the North American Industry Classification System.
Mr. Mesenbourg earned his bachelor's degree in economics from Boston University in 1968, and a
master's degree from Penn State University in 1971.
Previous Shiskin Award Winners
2010- Dale Jorgenson, an economics professor at Harvard University, in recognition of his contributions to the measurement of productivity, innovation, capital, human capital, poverty, and for his leadership and integration of the U.S. National Accounts. His research has provided contributions to the multi-factor productivity estimates produced by the European Union. His research on the concept of the cost of capital was also a major influence on the new chapter on capital services in the System of National Accounts 2008.
2009 - Helen Stone Tice, a senior research associate at the Center for Civil Society Studies at the Institute of Policy Studies at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore, in recognition of her innovative research on the contribution of nonprofit institutions to the economy, for her leadership in raising awareness of the nonprofit sector, and for work that she has done that has resulted in improvements in both U.S. and international economic accounts.
2008 - William R. Bell, a senior mathematical statistician at the U.S. Census Bureau, and Robert M. Groves, director of the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, have been selected as the recipients of the 2008 Julius Shiskin Memorial Award for Economic Statistics. Dr. Bell was selected to receive the Shiskin Award in recognition of his statistical research that led to improved economic statistics through contributions to the theory and practice of seasonal adjustment, small area estimation, and time series modeling. Dr. Groves is receiving the award in recognition of his innovative statistical research that led to improved economic statistics through contributions to the theory and practice of survey methods for sample surveys of households and establishments
2007- Arthur B. Kennickell, Senior Economist and Head of the Microeconomic Surveys Unit at the Federal Reserve Board, received the 2007 Julius Shiskin Memorial Award for Economic Statistics. The award recognizes Dr. Kennickell for his leadership of the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances and his achievements as an international expert on the design and implementation of household economic surveys.
2006 - J. Steven (Steve) Landefeld, Director of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, for his leadership in strengthening the BEA economic accounts, enhancing the international reputation of BEA, and outstanding staff development.
2005 - W. Erwin Diewert, Professor of Economics at the University of British Columbia, for path-breaking economic theoretical innovations, notably in index number theory, adapted to improve national economic statistics around the world
2004 - Agustín Maravall, Bank of Spain, for outstanding leadership and contributions to methods, software, training, and consultation for model-based seasonal adjustment and its acceptance by national statistical offices and central banks.
2003 - Carol A. Corrado, Federal Reserve Board, for outstanding stewardship of industrial production and capacity measurement resulting in notable statistical improvements, for leadership in measuring productivity and information-technology output and prices, and for significant contributions to macroeconomic analysis using disaggregated data.
2003 - Susan E. Offutt, Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for exceptional leadership in establishing the primacy of the Economic Research Service as the Nation's leading source of economic information and policy analysis on food, farm, natural resource, and rural development issues.
2002 - Katharine G. Abraham, Bureau of Labor Statistics, for her many methodological improvements in U.S. price and employment statistics—improvements demanded by the increasingly complex roles those statistics play in business and government affairs.
2001 - George C. Tiao, University of Chicago, for his research and leadership contributions to the methodological foundations of the first model-based approach to seasonal adjustment, an approach that has been adopted by several national statistical offices and central banks.
2000 - Edwin R. Dean, Bureau of Labor Statistics,for his important contributions to the improvement and understanding of productivity measures, his leadership in international comparisons of labor statistics, and his expertise and innovation that has expanded the Bureau of Labor Statistics international technical cooperation program.
1999 - Robert P. Parker, Bureau of Economic Analysis,for important contributions to aid in the management and interpretation of the economy, for exceptionally sound and innovative research in economic statistics, and for decades of work in improving the National Income and Product Accounts in the United States and other countries.
1998 - Eva Jacobs, Bureau of Labor Statistics, for her management of the Consumer Expenditure Survey Program, her work on the use of the Consumer Expenditure Survey data to analyze and interpret the economy, and her responsiveness to customer needs.
1998 - Joseph L. Gastwirth, George Washington University,for his seminal work that clarified the statistical procedures for the Lorenz curve and related measures of income inequality and for his continuing contributions to statistical methodology needed for economic and labor analysis.
1997 - Jack E. Triplett, Bureau of Economic Analysis, for broad contributions to the field of economic measurement, including the development and introduction of hedonic price index measurement techniques and superlative price and quantity indices in the National Income and Product Accounts and, most recently, the development and implementation of the North American Industry Classification System.
1996 - David F. Findley, the U.S. Census Bureau,for outstanding scientific leadership in improving seasonal adjustment methodology for the economic times series at the Census Bureau, the Federal Government, and throughout the world.
1995 - Fritz Scheuren, Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income,for breaking new ground in the construction of micro economic files, as well as the statistical uses of administrative data for economic research.
1994 - Joel Popkin, Joel Popkin and Company,for his contributions to the field of economic statistics, especially in the development of price indexes and other gauges of inflationary pressures.
1994 - Richard D. Allen, National Agricultural Statistics Service,for his contributions to the application of statistics to agricultural economics and to improving the quality, integrity, and timeliness of agricultural statistics.
1993 - Barbara A. Bailar, American Statistical Association,for her contributions to modernizing the Census Bureau's statistical programs, especially her work in undercount and non-sampling errors in the Decennial Census.
1992 - Allan H. Young, Bureau of Economic Analysis,for leadership in forging and refining statistical tools that contribute substantially to the ability to analyze the United States' economy and for imaginative management of a major statistical agency through critical times.
1991 - Carol S. Carson, Bureau of Economic Analysis,for her leadership in developing and refining the economic statistical base of the U.S. and for her contributions to the development of the revised U.N. System of National Accounts.
1991 - Stephen P. Taylor, Federal Reserve Board,for his outstanding leadership in developing and maintaining the U.S. Flow of Funds Accounts and using them to interpret the behavior of financial markets.
1990 - Jerome A. Mark, Bureau of Labor Statistics, for his outstanding achievements in the development and publications of measures of multi factor productivity.
1989 - Frank deLeeuw, Bureau of Economic Analysis,for his wide range of contributions to economic statistics that were characterized by the efficient use of statistical techniques and a practical analytical focus.
1988 - Charles Waite, Bureau of Economic Analysis and U. S. Census Bureau, for his contributions to the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U. S. Census Bureau,
1988 - Roger Herriot, U.S. Census Bureau, for his work in improving income statistics in the United States.
1987 - Irving Kravis, University of Pennsylvania, for his work in comparative studies for national income and prices.
1986 - Janet Norwood, Bureau of Labor Statistics, for her direction of the statistical program at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
1985 - David A. Pierce, Federal Reserve Board, for his introduction and use of modern statistical techniques in the data collection and modeling program of the Federal Reserve Board.
1984 - Geoffrey Moore, Bureau of Labor Statistics and Columbia University, for his research in measurement and analysis of business cycles.
1983 - Beatrice Vaccara, Treasury and Bureau of Industrial Analysisfor her major contributions to economic statistics including the development and application of input/output modeling and improvements to the system of business cycle indicators and for her leadership and direction of practical, policy oriented economic analysis.
1982 - Edward Denison, Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Brookings Institute, for his innovative and significant contributions to economics in general and particularly in the use of economic statistics.
1981 - James Bonnen, Michigan State University,for his service to the Statistical Community as Executive Director of the Presidential Reorganization Project for the Federal Statistical System and for his report Federal Statistical System Project: Issues and Opinions.
1980 - Estella Dagum, Statistics Canada, for her outstanding achievement in economic statistics, particularly for widely recognized contributions in time series analysis and for extending Julius Shiskin's pioneering work in seasonal adjustment by combining the X-11 seasonal adjustment program with the Box-Jenkins ARIMA models and especially the development of the X-11-ARIMA method.