The data for this problem are found on the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s (BEA’s) website (www.bea.gov/) in the News Release Archive

(www.bea.gov/newsreleases/relsarchivegdp.htm).

(a) Consider the quarter two before the current quarter. Go to the BEA website and locate the releases with the advance, preliminary, and final estimates of U.S. GDP for that quarter. For each release, identify or compute the GDP growth rate over the previous quarter (at a compound annual rate) and over the same quarter one year earlier. Make a table showing each growth rate for each release and the differences between the growth rates based on the advance versus the final estimates and on the preliminary versus the final estimates. Are these differences large or small? (How would you judge?)

(b) On the BEA website find the news release for the most recent comprehensive revision of GDP estimates. Choose a year about five years before the date of that revision. Compute or find the real GDP growth rate over the previous year in the comprehensive revision. Next find the earliest annual revision that covers that same year. Compute or find the same growth rate for the same year in that and the next three annual revisions. Record your results in a table that also reports the difference between each of the three annual revisions and the comprehensive revision. Are these differences large or small?