THE LIFE of American government beancounters(统计人员（贬义）) is tough, and not just at cocktail parties. They have a hard time(做某事有困难) persuading people to talk to them at work, too. A decade ago nearly nine in ten Americans, when approached, agreed to fill out the Current Population Survey, which is administered(执行、实施) to about 60,000 households each month and asks about, among other things, employment. Fewer than seven in ten do so now (see chart 1). For the Consumer Expenditure Survey, which tries to capture(获取（数据）) 3,700 households monthly, the response rate is down from 68% to 40%.
美国政府统计人员的生活很艰难，而且不仅仅是在鸡尾酒会上。他们在工作中也很难说服人们与他们交谈。十年前，近十分之九的美国人受到接触时同意填写当前人口调查，该调查每月对约6万户家庭进行，询问就业等信息。现在这样做的不到十分之七（见图表1）。对于每月试图收集3700户家庭数据的消费者支出调查，回应率从68%下降到40%。
Low engagement is a problem because the surveys are much more than a way to satisfy Uncle Sam(①背景：源自1812年战争期间，肉类包装...)’s curiosity about the citizenry(全体公民). Bosses and investors rely on accurate data about GDP growth, joblessness, inflation and much else besides to manage businesses and allocate(分配（资源）) capital. When the information becomes less reliable, investment decisions get more difficult to make. Some may be delayed, creating a potential drag on the economy.
低参与度是一个问题，因为这些调查远不止是满足山姆大叔对公民好奇心的一种方式。老板和投资者依赖关于GDP增长、失业、通货膨胀等的准确数据来管理企业和配置资本。当信息变得不太可靠时，投资决策变得更加困难。有些可能被推迟，对经济造成潜在的拖累。
But how much of a drag(多大的拖累)? A new working paper by Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, Erica Groshen, former head of the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) now at Cornell University, and Duncan Hobbs and Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, hazards(冒险提出) an estimate. Preserving trust in “the integrity(完整性) and quality of official statistics”, the authors claim, generates economic benefits of about $25 for every $1 spent on the BLS, the agency with an annual budget of $700m that is responsible for many of these data.
但拖累有多大？斯坦福大学的尼古拉斯·布卢姆、前劳工统计局局长现任职于康奈尔大学的埃里卡·格罗申，以及智库美国企业研究所的邓肯·霍布斯和迈克尔·斯特兰合著的一篇新工作论文，冒险给出了一个估计。作者声称，保持对“官方统计的完整性和质量”的信任，在BLS上每花费1美元，就能产生约25美元的经济效益。BLS是一家年度预算为7亿美元的机构，负责许多这些数据。
