A new data set (the NSF-Census match) containing information on the R&D expenditures, sales, employment, and other detail for approximately 1,000 largest manufacturing firms in the U.S. during 1957-1977 is analyzed using a standard production function framework augmented by the addition of an...

This review of data problems in econometrics has been prepared for the Handbook of Econometrics (Vol. 3, Chap. 25, forthcoming). It starts with a review of the ambivalent relationship between data and econometricians, emphasizing the largely second-hand nature of economic data and the...