John Holdren
To close the session, Ken Prewitt, former census for education, health, and the environment. The
director and now Carnegie Professor of Public Affairs Bureau of Economic Analysis will soon announce
at Columbia University, introduced John Holdren that “new architecture.”
as “a fierce defender and supporter of the social Another session focused on knowledge gained
sciences,” going back to the Reagan Administration’s from federal statistics in a series of key policy areas.
attacks on these sciences in the 1980s. Katharine Abraham, former commissioner of labor
Holdren began his talk by noting concern in statistics and now a professor at the University of
the social and behavioral science community over Maryland, discussed labor markets and the econ-
Obama’s speech to the National Academies. Not omy with a focus on aggregate labor conditions,
mentioning these sciences in the speech, Holdren individual and firm dynamics, and inequalities of
asserted, should not imply the administration’s lack labor market outcomes. Robin O’Malley of the
of support or interest. The speech, he said, was John Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the
geared toward “the comeback of the physical sci- Environment, noted that the reliance on state data
ences and engineering” to the core in thinking and collections was paramount in environmental statis-
decisionmaking in the White House. The social sci- tics and suggested these entities were not very well
ences were never absent, he suggested. connected to the federal statistical system. Stephanie
Turning to the statistical system, Holdren Koontz of Evergreen State College focused on the
asserted that without data, public policy is subject data that paint a portrait of the changing American
to “hideous error.” However, numbers are “always family and the major revolution in family forma-
something … never everything” in policy deci- tion that has occurred, with fewer marriages, more
sions. At the same time, he acknowledged that the cohabitation including same-sex couples, and the
administration’s science agenda must rely on data development of the notion of “emerging adult-
on climate change, public health, and demography hood” for people in their twenties who have not
for its most important initiatives. He mentioned the yet settled.
National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Science and Sam Preston of the University of Pennsylvania
Engineering Indicators, a biannual data collection illustrated what he called “the best data on health
and analysis on the scientific enterprise, as a key in the world.” He noted the importance of health
document for any science adviser. behaviors and the impact of smoking on the clos-
Holdren indicated the statistical system’s attempts ing of the gap in life expectancy between men and
to help researchers, noting the series of research data women in the United States and around the world.
centers established across the country for examining Finally, Doug Massey of Princeton and the current
microdata collected by that system. He also called president of the American Academy of Political and
for more investment in collecting better data to Social Science, examined immigration data, which he
determine the effectiveness of research and develop- again called the “weakest link” in the statistical sys-
ment, a key element of NSF’s Science of Science tem. Even though there is an Office of Immigration
and Innovation Policy initiative. Tracking expendi- Statistics in the Department of Homeland Security,
tures from the ARRA will be another challenge for Massey believes vast improvements are necessary in
the statistical system, according to Holdren. Finally, this policy area.
like most other speakers at the symposium, he called
for strengthening the research capacities within the
Business and Government Views
statistical agencies of the U.S. government. A panel on perspectives from business and govern-
ment featured Maureen Haver, chair of the National
Statistics in Key Policy Arenas
Association for Business Economic Statistics, call-
In between these two key administration representa- ing for improved measures of the service sector of
tives, the symposium featured a series of panels that the economy; completion of the modernization
described the federal statistical system, including a of the Consumer Price Index; and better data on
history of the census conducted by Margo Anderson international prices, health care, and financial ser-
of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the vices. She praised the enactment of the Confidential
National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency
depicted by Dale Jorgenson of Harvard. Anderson Act of 2002 that allowed for data sharing among
called the census “an old and venerable vital gov- federal agencies. Paul Overberg, the database edi-
ernment function” required by Article 1 Section 2 tor for USA Today, provided many examples of his
of the Constitution. Jorgenson said the NIPA was newspaper’s use of data produced by the federal
one of “the great conceptual inventions of the 20th statistical system, not only for its ubiquitous front-
century,” but that it was time to develop “a new page graphs, but as catalysts for more in-depth,
architecture” that will include nonmarket accounts inside-the-paper stories.
JULY 2009 AMSTAT NEWS 11
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