Cuts to US government raise worries over economic data quality
March 27, 2025
Economists are increasingly concerned that efforts by DOGE to cut the size of the government will lead to the loss of expert statisticians. Matthew Shapiro told the Financial Times, “The [push for federal staff to take] early retirements might lead to a lot of highly expert...
ICPSR Director Maggie Levenstein named 2024 AAAS Fellow
March 27, 2025
ANN ARBOR–ICPSR Director and SRC Research Professor Maggie Levenstein will be recognized as a 2024 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), “for distinguished contributions to industrial organization and historical economics, especially...
Noah Webster explores interactions between different environments in Insights presentation
March 19, 2025
Contact: Jon Meerdink ([email protected])ANN ARBOR — Our environments shape our lives in profound ways.The climate in which we live affects our well-being in visible and invisible ways. Our social environment affects every aspect of our relationships, both at home and at work. Our built...
U.S. Consumer Sentiment Drops as Inflation Anxiety Soars
March 17, 2025
New data from the Surveys of Consumers shows consumer sentiment falling by 11% in March among Americans of all ages, income groups and political affiliations. In the New York Times, Joanne Hsu said, “Many consumers cited the high level of uncertainty around policy and...
American travelers are booking fewer domestic flights in another warning sign for the economy
March 12, 2025
Fewer Americans are traveling by air, especially domestically, due to increasing worries about recession. Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers, says this isn’t a distress signal the way car loan defaults would be, but, “It’s a sign consumers may not be as...
Federal workers’ salaries represent less than 5% of federal spending and 1% of GDP
March 7, 2025
Government layoffs are at their highest level since 2020 and not only do these salaries consist of a tiny fraction of the government budget, many of the laid off workers make our economy and financial system run efficiently. Matthew Shapiro told Marketplace: When there’s...
Self-employment income widely underreported, Health and Retirement Study shows
February 28, 2025
Among older workers, the majority of self-employment income missing from tax records is due to unreported earnings to the Internal Revenue Service rather than differences in how income is classified, a new University of Michigan study finds.The analysis shows that the amounts of...
Stateside Podcast: Consumer confidence suffered in February, U-M says
February 27, 2025
Surveys of Consumers director, Joanne Hsu, joined Michigan Public’s Stateside to discuss February’s sharp drop in consumer sentiment. Consumers are aware about the news around tariffs, even amid all the other news that’s happening in the country and in the world...
Spotlight on Institute for Research on Innovation & Science
February 26, 2025
The Institute for Research on Innovation & Science (IRIS) is a consortium of research universities using administrative data to understand and explain the public value of research universities.IRIS reports pull back the curtain on the resources and expertise universities need to fuel...
Why consumers are not feeling optimistic about the economy, and what the data says
February 25, 2025
The latest numbers from the Surveys of Consumers show a decrease in consumer sentiment. On National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition, Joanne Hsu said people worrying about where prices are headed: “We’ve seen two consecutive months of sizable increases in...