We had a great event at AEI yesterday on the federal statistical system in a Big Data world. Let me quote from the event description.

The production of social and economic statistics is among the most important and useful functions of government. Because the production of official statistics has long been considered a public good, it has been inconceivable that any organization other than government could produce the reliable and accurate information necessary for business decisions and public policy design — until now.
Big Data is one of the most discussed innovations of the 21st century, but can it replace the federal statistical system? If not, can official statistics and Big Data complement each other? A panel of leading experts will discuss these questions and more.

The panel featured the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the former head of the Census Bureau, the cofounder of the Billion Prices Project, and the CEO of Burning Glass.

You can watch the YouTube video below, or check out the event page, which has the video along with each panelist’s slide deck and biography.

Embedded video

Finally, if you’re interested in the panel, you may also be interested in a short policy paper I wrote for Cato this fall on data.

A data feast.

— Michael R. Strain is deputy director of economic policy studies and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/MichaelRStrain.