Firing a statistics chief costs the economy $25 for every dollar saved

A new paper estimates the economic cost of undermining trust in official government statistics. It finds that for every dollar spent on a statistics agency, the economy gains $25 in benefits from reliable data.

Governments often cut budgets for agencies that produce boring, essential data. This paper puts a concrete number on the value of that data. It shows that the economic benefits of trusted statistics far outweigh their cost, making budget cuts to these agencies a false economy.