In-person data collection: a casualty of Covid-19

摘要

One vicious irony of the Covid-19 pandemic is that, at a time when data have perhaps never been more crucial, some data have become more difficult to collect. Take, for example, data on the prices of consumer goods. In normal times, national statistical agencies hire researchers to visit stores to monitor changes in the prices that people pay for certain items in order to provide an estimate of inflation - an important economic indicator. However, as the Institute for Fiscal Studies pointed out, "we do not live in normal times" (bit.ly/2V0eFCD). While store closures and social distancing measures were in force, in-person collection of prices was either halted or reduced, with online and telephone data collection picking up some of the slack. For example, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in March 2020, 37°/o of prices were collected in person versus 35% online, while the year before, 67% were collected in person and only 14% online (bit.ly/2SovDVU).