Why do official economic statistics get revised—and why do those revisions sometimes change the story of the economy?

In this episode of ECON-versations with NABE, we revisit a timely and much-discussed webinar that originally aired live on January 29, 2026, examining revisions to U.S. economic data from the BLS, BEA, and Census Bureau. Over the past year, revisions have made headlines for materially reshaping our understanding of growth, inflation, and labor market conditions.

Our panel digs into why revisions happen, how unusual recent revisions have been, what they reveal about the underlying state of the economy, and what business economists—and economic media—should keep in mind when interpreting early data releases versus subsequent updates.

Speakers

• David Wilcox, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; Director of U.S. Economic Research, Bloomberg Economics

• Dean Croushore, Professor of Economics and Rigsby Fellow, University of Richmond

Moderator: Jed Kolko, Co-Chair, NABE Data Analytics & Statistics Roundtable; Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; Senior Advisor, JPMC Institute