cipsea and other statutes. and allocating resources to better measure the most dynamic parts of the economy will help us get the most bang per buck in economic statistics by enhancing our ability to spot trends and improve forecasts of the direction of the economy. policymakers, businesses, and average americans are able to make better decisions with economic statistics that reflect the latest innovations in the economy. achieving an innovation - sensitive statistical system can be fostered by removing legislative barriers that impose costs on the system with no ( or little ) benefit. also, statistical agencies need to be nimble at recognizing and responding promptly to emerging trends in the structure of the economy. one way of achieving nimbleness is by getting feedback from users in government, in the academy and in business. the federal economic statistics advisory committee and the bea advisory committee are good examples of statistical agencies trying to increase the amount of feedback they receive. and organizations like the national association for business economics can communicate more widely the importance of innovative statistics for a dynamic economy. together we can try to fix the speedometer and clear the fog from the windshield to improve both public and private decisionmaking. carol corrado, charles hulten, and daniel sichel ( 2006 ), " intangible capital and economic growth ", nber working paper series 11948 ( cambridge, mass. : national bureau of economic research, january ). randall s. kroszner ( 2002 ), " bureau of economic analysis'strategic plan for 2001 - 2005 : comments " ( 636 kb pdf ), survey of current business ( may ), pp. 10 - 11. for example, robert c. feenstra and matthew d. shapiro, eds. ( 2003 ), scanner data and price indexes, studies in income and wealth, vol. 64 ( chicago : university of chicago press ) ; and erik hurst and mark aguiar ( 2005 ), " lifecycle prices and production ", nber working paper series 11601 ( cambridge, mass. : national bureau of economic research, september ).

board found that, according to the bls in 1997, 1. 1 million workers were employed in the industry category known as management of companies, whereas the census bureau tallied employment at 2. 6 million for that year! 5 in other industries, the differences in 1997, though not as large, still are dramatic. in the oil and gas extraction industry, the employment counts differ by more than 30 percent. in the computer and electronic product manufacturing industry, the bls and census counts differ by more than 12 percent, and so on. the reason the two business registers have not been harmonized is that current law prevents the bls from having the same access as the census bureau to business identifiers on tax forms. removing this barrier to sharing such data for statistical purposes would have significant payoffs. sharing of business registers would help provide for more accurate measures of industry output, compensation, and productivity trends. it would permit the statistical agencies to keep abreast of our dynamic economy by producing statistical samples that are consistently adjusted for the entry and exit of new businesses in a timely manner, and it would allow the agencies to correct errors quickly and efficiently. this is especially important for fast - growing and innovative industries such as information technology. such improvements would improve our ability to perceive emerging trends in the economy and more accurately forecast economic activity. the bea, the statistical agency responsible for estimating gdp and the other components of the national income and product accounts, cannot currently access information from business taxes. allowing the bea to obtain certain aggregate numbers from business tax returns for statistical purposes would let the bea significantly improve its estimates of the role of noncorporate businesses in the economy. this is important, in part, because many entrepreneurial start - up firms, which are a source of dynamism in the economy, begin their lives organized as sole proprietorships or partnerships - - that is, not as corporations. permitting the bea to use limited business tax information for statistical purposes could appreciably improve the measurement of this vibrant part of the economy and, once again, improve our ability to spot new trends and forecast economic activity. of course, in obtaining this information, the bea would continue to be subject to the strict confidentiality requirements and disclosure penalties embodied in cipsea. protecting data privacy is of utmost concern, and i would certainly not suggest changes that would compromise confidentiality. i now would like to turn to the second element i want to emphasize in improving the cost - benefit trade off for