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Session 1: Gross Domestic Product
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Gross Domestic Product - Robert Parker
National Income Accounts - Brooks Robinson and Shelly Smith
The Secret Confessions of a NIPA Addict - Joel Prakken
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2003 Comprehensive Revision of the National Income and Product Accounts
Speakers
Robert Parker, Chief Economist, General Accounting
Office, moderator
Brooks Robinson,
Chief of the Government Division
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Brooks Robinson is Chief of the Government Division, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC). Formerly, he was Chief of the Income Branch in BEA’s National Income and Wealth Division. He began his work at BEA in September of 1987 as an entry-level economist. From 1998-2000, Robinson served in the USDOC Foreign Commercial Service’s (FCS) New Delhi, India office, where he was responsible for market research. Also, during his tenure with FCS, he served as Acting Director of the U.S.-Asia Environmental Partnership (US-AEP) Program.
Robinson received his Bachelors Degree (1985) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he holds Masters (1992) and Doctoral Degrees (1998) from George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Economics was the subject of all three degrees.
Robinson was born in Gainesville, Florida. He is married and has two daughters.Shelly Smith
Economist
Bureau of Economic Analysis
Shelly Smith is an economist with the National Income and Wealth Division (NIWD) of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC). She began working at BEA in May of 1997. At BEA, she serves as a member of the team responsible for the review and analysis of the quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) estimates. Prior to joining NIWD, Ms. Smith was an economist with the Federal Branch of BEA’s Government Division where she developed estimates of several components of the government accounts, including Federal Government spending on research and development and the current surplus of Federal Government enterprises. Ms. Smith is also active in many developmental activities at BEA, including the Standing Committee on Estimation, (where she currently serves as chairperson), which strives to increase staff awareness of estimation problems and solutions, and BEA’s mentoring program (where she served as coordinator for 2 years).
Ms. Smith received her Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies and in Economics from Frostburg State University in western Maryland. She is currently pursuing her Masters Degree in Applied Economics from the Johns Hopkins University.
Joel L. Prakken
Chairman
Macroeconomic Advisers,
LLC
In 1982, Dr. Prakken teamed with Chris Varvares and Laurence Meyer to found
the economic consulting firm of Laurence H. Meyer & Associates, Ltd.
In June of 1996, when Dr. Meyer assumed a position on the Board of Governors
of the Federal Reserve System, the firm was renamed Macroeconomic Advisers
and Dr. Prakken became its new Chairman.
Dr. Prakken completed his undergraduate degree in economics at Princeton University, and he holds a Ph.D. in economics from Washington University in Saint Louis. Prior to founding Macroeconomic Advisers, he held the position of Senior Economist at the World Headquarters of the IBM Corporation and, before that, he served with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He has held positions on the faculties of New York University's Graduate School of Business, the Economics Department of Washington University, and the Olin School of Business at Washington University. He is the past president and a current director of the National Association for Business Economics, the largest non-academic association of professional economists in the United States. He is also past president of the Gateway Association of Business Economists in Saint Louis.
Dr. Prakken has numerous publications to his credit, including papers written for the Council of Economic Advisers, the American Council for Capital Formation, and the Center for the American Study of Business on topics ranging from tax reform, to budget policy, to monetary policy, to the impact of technology on productivity. He has testified frequently on these topics before committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He also participates regularly in the meetings of the Outside Consultants to both the Congressional Budget Office and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.