An ad hoc panel of nationally renowned experts in social science research, computing technology, statistical methods, privacy, and use of alternative data sources in the United States and abroad will conduct a study with the goal of fostering a paradigm shift in federal statistical programs. In place of the current paradigm of providing users with the output from a single census, survey, or administrative records source, a new paradigm would use combinations of diverse data sources from government and private sector sources combined with state-of-the art methods to give users richer and more reliable statistics leading to new insights about policy and socioeconomic behavior. The motivation for the study stems from the increasing challenges to the current paradigm, such as declining response rates and increasing cost and burden for surveys.

The panel will prepare two reports as part of this study:

First Report

The first report will discuss the challenges faced by the federal statistical system; the current paradigm of providing users with the output from a single census, survey, or administrative records source and that paradigm’s increasing disadvantages for meeting user needs; and the foundational elements needed for a new paradigm.

More specifically, the first report will:

· review federal statistical agencies’ current paradigm for producing national statistics and challenges to this paradigm;

· review federal statistical agencies’ legal frameworks and mechanisms for protecting the privacy and confidentiality of their data and examine challenges to those frameworks and mechanisms;

· review federal statistical agencies’ legal frameworks and mechanisms for providing access to underlying data to researchers to foster transparency, replicability of statistical series, and for policy and social science research and examine challenges to those frameworks and mechanisms;

· examine federal statistical agencies’ access to alternative sources of data for federal statistical programs, the organizational structures sustaining access, and the impediments to access;

· discuss the characteristics of a new paradigm for federal statistical programs that would combine diverse data sources from government and private sector sources with state-of-the art methods to give users richer and more reliable statistics; and

· discuss the foundational elements needed for a new paradigm.

The first report will contain findings and conclusions from the panel’s deliberations and recommendations for steps needed to lay the foundation for a new paradigm.

Second Report

The second report will propose approaches for implementing a new paradigm that would combine diverse data sources from government and private sector sources with state-of-the art methods to give users richer and more reliable statistics.

The second report will:

· assess alternative approaches for implementing a new paradigm that would combine diverse data sources from government and private sector sources;

· evaluate concepts, metrics, and methods for assessing the quality and utility ofalternative data sources, analogous to the “total error” framework used for surveys;

· evaluate statistical models for combining data from multiple sources;

· examine metrics and methods for evaluating the quality of combined-information estimates;

· evaluate alternative designs of statistical processes that foster privacy protections, transparency, objectivity, timeliness, replicability, efficiency, and continuity of statistical series; and

· identify priorities for research needed for federal statistical agencies to advance a multiple-data-sources paradigm.

The second report will contain findings, conclusions, and recommendations for actions toward implementing a new multiple-data-sources paradigm for federal statistics.