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Productivity Research and Program Development
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Peter Benjamin Meyer
Research Economist, Division of Productivity Research and Program Development
| Contact Information |  (202) 691-5678 E-mail |
| Fields of Interest | Technological change; occupation and industry classification; invention; startup industries; prediction |
| Education | Ph.D., Economics, Northwestern University, 2001 A.B., Applied Mathematics with Computer Science, Harvard University, 1988 |
| Professional Experience | Research Economist, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001-present Senior Software Engineer, Symantec Corp, 1988-1994 |
Selected works
- “Using multinational patent data to measure a design change in early aviation”, forthcoming in Scientometrics
- “The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on inequality”, with Joe Piacentini, Harley Frazis, Michael Schultz, and Leo Sveikauskas, Review of Income and Wealth, Sept. 2024
- “Introduction to the GASP special issue”, with Lisa M. Frehill, Journal of Data Science, 22:3, Summer 2024, 353-355.
- “Marketing, other intangibles, and output growth in 61 United States industries”, with Leo Sveikauskas, Rachel Soloveichik, Corby Garner, James Bessen, and Matt Russell, Review of Income and Wealth, December 2024, pp. 1190-1215.
- “Revisions to BLS quarterly labor productivity estimates: How large are they?”, with Kendra Asher, John Glaser, Jay Stewart, and Jerin Varghese. Monthly Labor Review, March 2022
- How large are long-run revisions to U.S. labor productivity? coauthored with John Glaser, Kendra Asher, Jay Stewart, and Jerin Varghese. Presented at IARIW conference, Aug 2021
- How much is US labor productivity revised? Presented at Federal Forecasters Conference, May 6, 2021. Data has five years of revisions.
- How large are revisions to estimates of quarterly labor productivity growth?, coauthored with Kendra Asher, John Glaser, Jay Stewart, and Jerin Varghese. BLS working paper WP-538, April 2021
- The Impact of COVID-19 on Labor Markets and Inequality, coauthored with Joseph Piacentini, Harley Frazis, Michael Schultz, and Leo Sveikauskas. BLS Working Paper 551, August 2022
- Intangible capital and US productivity growth in 61 industries, with Corby Garner, Matt Russell, James Bessen, and Leo Sveikauskas. Presented at IARIW conference, Aug 2021, and ASSA 2022 (2022 slides), (2021 paper)
- "Alternative capital asset depreciation rates for U.S. capital and total factor productivity measures," (with Michael D. Giandrea, Robert J. Kornfeld, and Susan G. Powers), Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2022
- Alternative Capital Asset Depreciation Rates for U.S. Capital and Multifactor Productivity Measures, with Michael D. Giandrea, Robert J. Kornfeld, and Susan G. Powers, BLS working paper WP-539, April 2021
- Employment recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Elizabeth Weber Handwerker, Joseph Piacentini, Michael Schultz, and Leo Sveikauskas. Monthly Labor Review, December 2020
- Augmented CPS information on Industry and Occupation, with Kendra Asher. JSM 2020 conference presentation.
- Metadata systems for the U.S. statistical agencies, in plain language, with Daniel Gillman, Kathryn McNamara, Francisco Moris, William Savino, and Bruce Taylor. July 2020. Slides.
- Augmenting U.S. Census data on industry and occupation of respondents, with Kendra Asher. 2019 IEEE Data Science and Advanced Analytics (DSAA) conference, 600-601. At IEEE: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8964132. doi:10.1109/DSAA.2019.00076
- Updated in 2021 ASSA presentation: (slides), (paper)
- Updated unified category system for 1960-2000 Census occupations. 2010. FCSM conference proceedings.
- Proposed Category System for 1960-2000 Census Occupations, with Anastasiya Osborne. BLS Working Paper 383. 2005.
- Predicting industry output with statistical learning methods, with Wendy Martinez. 2017. In JSM Proceedings, Government Statistics Section. Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association. 3256-3269.
- A Catapult of Riches: the invention of the airplane and its industry. 2015. Chapter 8 of Institutions, Innovation, and Industrialization: Essays in Economic History and Development, edited by Greif, Kiesling, and Nye. Princeton.
- An Inventive Commons: shared sources of the airplane and its industry. 2014. Chapter 10 of Governing Knowledge Commons, edited by Frischmann, Madison, and Strandburg.
- The airplane as an open source invention. 2013. Revue Economique 64:1, pp. 115-132.
- EHA, Economic History, and Wikipedia. Plenary presentation at 2013 Economic History Association conference.
- Wikis across government agencies. 2012. Presentation at Tech@State / Wikimania 2012
- Statipedia: a platform for collaboration across statistical agencies, with Jim Buszuwski. 2010. FCSM conference paper
- Statipedia: a platform for collaboration across statistical agencies, with Jim Buszuwski. 2009. OECD conference presentation
- Workplace organization and innovation, with Cindy Zoghi and Robert D. Mohr. 2010. Canadian Journal of Economics 43:2, 622-639
- Who had an occupation? Changing boundaries in historical U.S. Census data. 2009. Historical Social Research 34(3), 149-167. https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.34.2009.3.149-167
- Network of Tinkerers: A Model of Open-Source Technology Innovation BLS Working Paper 413. 2007.
- Preliminary Estimates of Multifactor Productivity Growth, with Michael J. Harper. 2005. Monthly Labor Review, June, pp. 32-43.
- Turbulence, Inequality, and Cheap Steel BLS Working Paper 375. 2005.
- Episodes of Collective Invention. BLS Working Paper 368. 2003.