Micro and Macro Data Integration: The Case of Capital

79 Pages Posted: 18 Nov 2009

See all articles by Randy A. Becker

Randy A. Becker

U.S. Census Bureau - Center for Economic Studies

John Haltiwanger

University of Maryland - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Ron S. Jarmin

U.S. Census Bureau

Shawn D. Klimek

U.S. Census Bureau - Center for Economic Studies

Daniel J. Wilson

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Date Written: March 25, 2005

Abstract

Micro and macro data integration should be an objective of economic measurement as it is clearly advantageous to have internally consistent measurement at all levels of aggregation - firm, industry and aggregate. In spite of the apparently compelling arguments, there are few measures of business activity that achieve anything close to micro/macro data internal consistency. The measures of business activity that are arguably the worst on this dimension are capital stocks and flows. In this paper, we document, quantify and analyze the widely different approaches to the measurement of capital from the aggregate (top down) and micro (bottom up) perspectives. We find that recent developments in data collection permit improved integration of the top down and bottom up approaches. We develop a prototype hybrid method that exploits these data to improve micro/macro data internal consistency in a manner that could potentially lead to substantially improved measures of capital stocks and flows at the industry level. We also explore the properties of the micro distribution of investment. In spite of substantial data and associated measurement limitations, we show that the micro distributions of investment exhibit properties that are of interest to both micro and macro analysts of investment behavior. These findings help highlight some of the potential benefits of micro/macro data integration.

Suggested Citation

Becker, Randy A. and Haltiwanger, John C. and Jarmin, Ron S. and Klimek, Shawn D. and Wilson, Daniel J., Micro and Macro Data Integration: The Case of Capital (March 25, 2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1508004 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1508004

Randy A. Becker (Contact Author)

U.S. Census Bureau - Center for Economic Studies ( email )

4600 Silver Hill Road
Washington, DC 20233
United States

John C. Haltiwanger

University of Maryland - Department of Economics ( email )

College Park, MD 20742
United States
301-405-3504 (Phone)
301-405-3542 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

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Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Ron S. Jarmin

U.S. Census Bureau ( email )

4700 Silver Hill Road
Washington, DC 20233
United States

Shawn D. Klimek

U.S. Census Bureau - Center for Economic Studies ( email )

4600 Silver Hill Road
Washington, DC 20233
United States
(301) 763-2861 (Phone)
(301 763-5935 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.ces.census.gov

Daniel J. Wilson

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco ( email )

101 Market Street
Mail Stop 1130
San Francisco, CA 94105
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.frbsf.org/economics/economists/dwilson.html

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