March 27, 2025
Cuts to US government raise worries over economic data quality
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 human capital walking out the door.”
Shapiro also believes a new executive order eliminating “information silos” and forcing agencies to share data with officials designated by the president will lead to lower response rates for surveys such as the labor force survey.