Abowd Wins Award

U.S. Census Bureau Associate Director for Research and Methodology, and Chief Scientist John M. Abowd, an ILR School professor, has won the 2016 Julius Shiskin Award for Economic Statistics.

The Shiskin Award is given in recognition of unusually original and important contributions in the development of economic statistics, or in the use of statistics in interpreting the economy.

Known for developing econometric and statistical techniques to conduct labor market analysis, Abowd is Cornell’s Edmund Ezra Day Professor of Economics, Statistics and Information Science.

Abowd, who begins June 1 in his new role at the U.S. Census Bureau in Washington, D.C., enabled federal statistical agencies to expand data availability while preserving respondents' confidentiality, and for helping provide Internet access to the federal data.

Abowd’s research on privacy and statistical disclosure limitation will improve products for Census Bureau users and help the agency honor its commitment to data confidentiality, according to the bureau.

The Research and Methodology Directorate, the Census Bureau department Abowd will lead through May 2019, includes the Center for Adaptive Design, Center for Administrative Records Research and Applications, Center for Disclosure Avoidance Research, Center for Economic Studies, Center for Statistical Research and Methodology, Center for Survey Measurement and the new Center for Big Data Research and Applications.

The Shiskin Award, which will be formally given to Abowd on June 29, was established in 1980.

It is cosponsored by the Washington Statistical Society, the National Association for Business Economics and the Business and Economics Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association.

Shiskin was serving as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the time of his death in 1978. Earlier, he served as the chief statistician at the Office of Management and Budget, and as the chief economic statistician and assistant director of the Census Bureau.