How the U.S. Census Bureau e-commerce figures overestimate output and online sales

C-Tier
Journal: Economics Letters
Year: 2018
Volume: 172
Issue: C
Pages: 157-159

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

I identify biases in the definition of e-commerce employed by the Census Bureau. They arise from using a concept based on the role of ICT in a transaction that is measured empirically on the basis of sales/revenues. I quantify this bias as a measure of output growth in the retail sector for the most important e-commerce retail sector at the NAICS 4-digit level (4541). In addition, a range of estimates for the bias as a measure of the growth of actual online sales in this sector is derived. Potential solutions are provided in a concluding section.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:ecolet:v:172:y:2018:i:c:p:157-159
Journal Field
General
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-24