From the course: Economic Tips for Everyone

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Time and collection differences in economic data

Time and collection differences in economic data

From the course: Economic Tips for Everyone

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Time and collection differences in economic data

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- When you're looking at data, it's really important to make sure you're making apples to apples comparisons. And there are a few simple things you can do to make sure you're not comparing apples to watermelon to bacon. First, check that the units are consistent, weights, measures, prices, currencies, and data adjustments. Second, check that the timing of your comparison is consistent. If you're looking at weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual data, make sure you're making similar comparisons. Third, make sure you understand how the data is collected. There's an old joke of a data analyst and a client. They're sitting in the client's office, and the analyst presents the data. The client says, "what does the data mean?" And the analyst says, "what do you want it to mean?" Because there's rapid growth in the amount of data in the world, and some people have business, financial or political reasons for wanting data to reflect…

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