Consensus
Intergenerational mobility is an important measure of well-being that underlies a fundamental value: that anyone should be able to succeed economically based on their own merits, regardless of their circumstances. This has been a value held by many Americans throughout U.S. history, even as many observers may rightly argue that it has been, at times and for many groups, severely constrained. For all the emphasis placed on mobility in the United States, the chances Americans have of doing better than their parents and their chances of succeeding economically regardless of the advantages of birth are not higher than in other wealthy countries.
This report provides a forward-looking framework for data, research, and policy initiatives to boost upward mobility and better fulfill promises of opportunity and advancement for all members of U.S. society. The report focuses on key domains that shape mobility, including early life and family; the spaces and places where people live and work; postsecondary education; and credit, wealth, and debt. It also discusses the data infrastructure needed to support an extensive research agenda on economic and social mobility.
290 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-73039-2
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-73040-6
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/28456
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Economic and Social Mobility: New Directions for Data, Research, and Policy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Consensus
Federal tax credits are among the nation's most powerful tools for reducing child poverty. Temporary expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 demonstrated the scale of impact these policies can have, lifting more than 2 million children above the poverty line and showing that alternative designs could reduce child poverty even further.
Pathways to Reduce Child Poverty: Impacts of Federal Tax Credits provides an in-depth assessment of how these credits worked in 2021, what effects they had across different groups of children, and the potential trade-offs of long-term policy options. Developed by a committee of experts, the report offers evidence-based insights for policymakers, funders, researchers, and advocates. It highlights how different credit designs could shape children's well-being, employment incentives, and fiscal costs, and points to opportunities for future research to strengthen policy decisions.
403 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-99409-8
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-99407-1
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/29163
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Pathways to Reduce Child Poverty: Impacts of Federal Tax Credits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Cybercrime poses serious threats and financial costs to individuals and businesses in the United States and worldwide. Reports of data breaches and ransomware attacks on governments and businesses have become common, as have incidents against individuals (e.g., identity theft, online stalking, and harassment). Concern over cybercrime has increased as the internet has become a ubiquitous part of modern life. However, comprehensive, consistent, and reliable data and metrics on cybercrime still do not exist - a consequence of a shortage of vital information resulting from the decentralized nature of relevant data collection at the national level.
Cybercrime Classification and Measurement addresses the absence credible cybercrime data and metrics. This report provides a taxonomy for the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the purpose of measuring different types of cybercrime, including both cyber-enabled and cyber-dependent crimes faced by individuals and businesses, and considers the needs for its periodic revision. This report was mandated by the 2022 Better Cybercrime Metrics Act (BCMA).
160 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-73461-4
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-73462-2
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/29048
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Cybercrime Classification and Measurement. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Consensus
The 8th Edition of Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency supports the essential role of relevant, credible, trusted, independent, and innovative government statistics. Since 1992, this report has described the characteristics of effective federal statistical agencies. Government statistics are widely used to inform decisions by policymakers, program administrators, businesses and other organizations, as well as households and the general public.
Principles and Practices is a concise tool to communicate the unique responsibilities of federal statistical agencies. It underscores the invaluable role that relevant, timely, accurate, and trustworthy government statistics play to inform the public and policymakers. Since 2001, an updated edition is released at the beginning of each presidential term.
This eighth edition retains the five principles and ten practices established in prior editions, including updated examples and extensive appendices to reflect the many and varied changes across the national statistical system that have occurred since the passage of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 ("Evidence Act"), the CHIPS and Science Act, and implementing regulations.
240 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-72543-7
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-72544-5
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/27934
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency: Eighth Edition. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop_in_brief
The Committee on National Statistics convened a workshop on September 25-26, 2024, to explore methodological, analytical, and statistical frontiers in the social and behavioral sciences. The workshop identified innovative approaches that deserve more research attention and could benefit more than one discipline. The workshop considered the latest developments and directions in approaches such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, new study designs, technologies, and data sources, causal and spatial analysis, and methods for data protection and dissemination. This proceedings of a workshop-in brief summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.
11 pages
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-73575-0
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/29083
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Future Directions for Social and Behavioral Science Methodologies in the Next Decade: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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The National Climate Assessment (NCA) is a report produced periodically by the United States Global Change Research Program that takes a comprehensive look at global climate change. Before release, it undergoes intensive review for technical accuracy. What has not been studied in-depth are the users and uses of the NCA, and how the report has informed decision-making. To support evaluation of stakeholder use of the NCA, the National Academies prepared a strategy for creating and implementing an evaluation design that can inform ongoing and future NCAs and related products. This can support a process of continuous improvement.
The NCA serves a large number of audiences, and they vary in their needs and in access to climate information. An evaluation would benefit from understanding how the audiences for the NCA are interconnected through networks and how they use, modify, and transmit information from the report. The evaluation would also benefit by first creating a logic model to describe how the NCA is hypothesized to achieve its intended outcomes. The logic model can then be used to design a set of overarching evaluation questions, and to prioritize which audiences to target in the evaluation. Different research methods will be appropriate depending on the audience and the level of information available about the audience. Such an evaluation, taken in stages, can reveal the impact of federal climate science on decisions across the nation and help the USGCRP address any gaps and frailties in the NCA and related products and how they are communicated in the future.
138 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-72500-3
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-72501-1
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/27923
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024. Developing a Strategy to Evaluate the National Climate Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Consensus
For-hire trucking—as opposed to in-house private carriers that transport the goods of their parent company—is a large and heterogeneous industry with considerable variability in carrier sizes, operational structures, and freight markets served. For this sector, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration should explore opportunities for leveraging research and data collection that may be planned and programmed for other purposes to help regulators, researchers, and industry examine the potential effects of driver compensation and work conditions on the safe driving behavior and performance of long-distance for-hire truck drivers.
This is among the recommendations in TRB Special Report 355: Pay and Work Conditions in the Long-Distance Truck and Bus Industries: Assessing for Effects on Driver Safety and Retention, from the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report examines—in response to a request from the U.S. Congress—the impacts of various methods of driver compensation on safety and driver retention, including hourly pay, payment for detention time, and other payment methods used in the industry.
174 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-72385-X
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-72386-8
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/27892
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024. Pay and Working Conditions in the Long-Distance Truck and Bus Industries: Assessing for Effects on Driver Safety and Retention. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Consensus
Many federal agencies provide data and statistics on inequality and related aspects of household income, consumption, and wealth (ICW). However, because the information provided by these agencies is often produced using different concepts, underlying data, and methods, the resulting estimates of poverty, inequality, mean and median household income, consumption, and wealth, as well as other statistics, do not always tell a consistent or easily interpretable story. Measures also differ in their accuracy, timeliness, and relevance so that it is difficult to address such questions as the effects of the Great Recession on household finances or of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing relief efforts on household income and consumption. The presence of multiple, sometimes conflicting statistics at best muddies the waters of policy debates and, at worst, enable advocates with different policy perspectives to cherry-pick their preferred set of estimates. Achieving an integrated system of relevant, high-quality, and transparent household ICW data and statistics should go far to reduce disagreement about who has how much, and from what sources. Further, such data are essential to advance research on economic wellbeing and to ensure that policies are well targeted to achieve societal goals.
Creating an Integrated System of Data and Statistics on Household Income, Consumption, and Wealth reviews the major household ICW statistics currently produced by U.S. statistical agencies and provides guidance for modernizing the information to better inform policy and research, such as understanding trends in inequality and mobility. This report provides recommendations for developing an improved 21st century data system for measuring the extent to which economic prosperity is shared by households throughout the population and for understanding how the distribution of resources is affected by government policy and economic events.
350 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-71231-9
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-71232-7
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/27333
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024. Creating an Integrated System of Data and Statistics on Household Income, Consumption, and Wealth: Time to Build. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Experiencing poverty during childhood can lead to lasting harmful effects that compromise not only children's health and welfare but can also hinder future opportunities for economic mobility, which may be passed on to future generations. This cycle of economic disadvantage weighs heavily not only on children and families experiencing poverty but also the nation, reducing overall economic output and placing increased burden on the educational, criminal justice, and health care systems.
Reducing Intergenerational Poverty examines key drivers of long- term, intergenerational poverty, including the racial disparities and structural factors that contribute to this cycle. The report assesses existing research on the effects on intergenerational poverty of income assistance, education, health, and other intervention programs and identifies evidence-based programs and policies that have the potential to significantly reduce the effects of the key drivers of intergenerational poverty. The report also examines the disproportionate effect of disadvantage to different racial/ethnic groups. In addition, the report identifies high-priority gaps in the data and research needed to help develop effective policies for reducing intergenerational poverty in the United States.
516 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-70366-2
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-70367-0
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/27058
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024. Reducing Intergenerational Poverty. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Protecting privacy and ensuring confidentiality in data is a critical component of modernizing our national data infrastructure. The use of blended data - combining previously collected data sources - presents new considerations for responsible data stewardship. Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Managing Privacy and Confidentiality Risks with Blended Data provides a framework for managing disclosure risks that accounts for the unique attributes of blended data and poses a series of questions to guide considered decision-making.
Technical approaches to manage disclosure risk have advanced. Recent federal legislation, regulation and guidance has described broadly the roles and responsibilities for stewardship of blended data. The report, drawing from the panel review of both technical and policy approaches, addresses these emerging opportunities and the new challenges and responsibilities they present. The report underscores that trade-offs in disclosure risks, disclosure harms, and data usefulness are unavoidable and are central considerations when planning data-release strategies, particularly for blended data.
164 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-71238-6
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-71239-4
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/27335
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024. Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Managing Privacy and Confidentiality Risks with Blended Data. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) is one of the U.S. Census Bureau's major surveys with features making it a uniquely valuable resource for researchers and policy analysts. However, the Census Bureau faces the challenge of protecting the confidentiality of survey respondents which has become increasingly difficult because numerous databases exist with personal identifying information that collectively contain data on household finances, home values, purchasing behavior, and other SIPP-relevant characteristics.
A Roadmap for Disclosure Avoidance in the Survey of Income and Program Participation addresses these issues and how to make data from SIPP available to researchers and policymakers while protecting the confidentiality of survey respondents. The report considers factors such as evolving privacy risks, development of new methods for protecting privacy, the nature of the data collected through SIPP, the practice of linking SIPP data with administrative data, the types of data products produced, and the desire to provide timely access to SIPP data. The report seeks to balance minimizing the risk of disclosure against allowing researchers and policymakers to have timely access to data that support valid inferences.
272 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-70710-2
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-70711-0
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/27169
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024. A Roadmap for Disclosure Avoidance in the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop
From April 25-26, 2023 the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to identify challenges in and opportunities for measuring suicide in the law enforcement occupation. Experts in the field met to identify ways to improve the measurement of suicide by current and former police and corrections officers, dispatchers, and other sworn and civilian personnel, in public and private organizations. This proceedings provides a synthesis of key themes identified during the workshop.
126 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-70876-1
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-70877-X
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/27216
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Measuring Law Enforcement Suicide: Challenges and Opportunities: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Consensus
Since 1790, the U.S. census has been a recurring, essential civic ceremony in which everyone counts; it reaffirms a commitment to equality among all, as political representation is explicitly tied to population counts. Assessing the 2020 Census looks at the quality of the 2020 Census and its constituent operations, drawing appropriate comparisons with prior censuses. The report acknowledges the extraordinary challenges the Census Bureau faced in conducting the census and provides guidance as it plans for the 2030 Census. In addition, the report encourages research and development as the goals and designs for the 2030 Census are developed, urging the Census Bureau to establish a true partnership with census data users and government partners at the state, local, tribal, and federal levels.
532 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-70646-7
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-70647-5
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/27150
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Assessing the 2020 Census: Final Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop
Population surveys collect information from participants by asking questions. Today, many surveys also collect biologic specimens that can be used to analyze a respondents DNA and other biomarkers. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is a population survey that also administers a physical examination, collects biospecimens, and reports some test results (e.g., cholesterol levels) to the participant. While visiting communities large and small throughout the country, NHANES collects health and nutrition data from a representative sample of individuals through in-person interviews and health examinations that take place at special mobile examination centers. The examination component consists of medical, dental, and physiological examinations, as well as laboratory tests.
On December 2, 7, and 8, 2022, a workshop was convened to focus on anticipated future collections of genomic data by NHANES. The 2022 workshop explored ethical considerations and current practices for returning genomic information from active research and population surveys. This Proceedings of a Workshop summarizes the presentations and discussions at the workshop.
210 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-70489-8
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-70490-1
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/27105
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Considerations for Returning Individual Genomic Results from Population-Based Surveys: Focus on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Much of the statistical information currently produced by federal statistical agencies - information about economic, social, and physical well-being that is essential for the functioning of modern society - comes from sample surveys. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of data from other sources, including data collected by government agencies while administering programs, satellite and sensor data, private-sector data such as electronic health records and credit card transaction data, and massive amounts of data available on the internet. How can these data sources be used to enhance the information currently collected on surveys, and to provide new frontiers for producing information and statistics to benefit American society?
Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Enhancing Survey Programs by Using Multiple Data Sources, the second report in a series funded by the National Science Foundation, discusses how use of multiple data sources can improve the quality of national and subnational statistics while promoting data equity. This report explores implications of combining survey data with other data sources through examples relating to the areas of income, health, crime, and agriculture.
260 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-69675-5
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-69676-3
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26804
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Enhancing Survey Programs by Using Multiple Data Sources. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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An accurate measure of poverty is necessary to fully understand how the economy is performing across all segments of the population and to assess the effects of government policies on communities and families. In addition, poverty statistics are essential in determining the size and composition of the population whose basic needs are going unmet and to help society target resources to address those needs.
An Updated Measure of Poverty: (Re)Drawing the Line recommends updating the methodology used by the Census Bureau to calculate the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) to reflect household basic needs. This report recommends that the more comprehensive SPM replace the current Official Poverty Measure as the primary statistical measure of poverty the Census Bureau uses. The report assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the SPM and provides recommendations for updating its methodology and expanding its use in recognition of the needs of most American families such as medical care, childcare, and housing costs.
150 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-69739-5
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-69740-9
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26825
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. An Updated Measure of Poverty: (Re)Drawing the Line. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Behavioral economics - a field based in collaborations among economists and psychologists - focuses on integrating a nuanced understanding of behavior into models of decision-making. Since the mid-20th century, this growing field has produced research in numerous domains and has influenced policymaking, research, and marketing. However, little has been done to assess these contributions and review evidence of their use in the policy arena.
Behavioral Economics: Policy Impact and Future Directions examines the evidence for behavioral economics and its application in six public policy domains: health, retirement benefits, climate change, social safety net benefits, climate change, education, and criminal justice. The report concludes that the principles of behavioral economics are indispensable for the design of policy and recommends integrating behavioral specialists into policy development within government units. In addition, the report calls for strengthening research methodology and identifies research priorities for building on the accomplishments of the field to date.
246 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-69983-5
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-69984-3
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26874
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Behavioral Economics: Policy Impact and Future Directions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Extreme weather and wildfires, intensified by climate change, are damaging the native plant communities of landscapes across the United States. Native plant communities are foundational to thriving ecosystems, delivering goods and services that regulate the environment and support life, provide food and shelter for a wide range of native animals, and embody a wealth of genetic information with many beneficial applications. Restoring impaired ecosystems requires a supply of diverse native plant seeds that are well suited to the climates, soils, and other living species of the system.
This report examines the needs for native plant restoration and other activities, provides recommendations for improving the reliability, predictability, and performance of the native seed supply, and presents an ambitious agenda for action. An Assessment of Native Seed Needs and the Capacity for Their Supply considers the various challenges facing our natural landscapes and calls for a coordinated public-private effort to scale-up and secure a cost-effective national native seed supply.
252 pages
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ISBN Paperback: 0-309-69025-0
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-69026-9
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26618
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. An Assessment of Native Seed Needs and the Capacity for Their Supply: Final Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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