This volume contains papers presented at a conference in May 1988 in
Washington, D.C., commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding
of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth (CRIW). The call for
papers emphasized assessments of broad topics in economic measurement,
both conceptual and pragmatic. The organizers desired (and succeeded in
obtaining) a mix of papers that, first, illustrate the range of
measurement issues that economics as a science must confront and,
second, mark major milestones of CRIW accomplishment. The papers concern
prices and output (Griliches, Pieper, Triplett) and also the major
productive inputs, capital (Hulten) and labor (Hamermesh). Measures of
saving, the source of capital accumulation, are covered in one paper
(Boskin); measuring productivity, the source of much of the growth in
per capita income, is reviewed in another (Jorgenson). The use of
economic data in economic policy analysis and in regulation are
illustrated in a review of measures of tax burden (Atrostic and Nunns)
and in an analysis of the data needed for environmental regulation
(Russell and Smith); the adequacy of data for policy analysis is
evaluated in a roundtable discussion (chapter 12) involving four
distinguished policy analysts with extensive government experience in
Washington and Ottawa.