The Leontief-BLS partnership: A new framework for measurement

"The Department of Labor," according to Wassily Leontief, "was the first government agency to take an active interest in the `input-output' approach to the study of the American economy and the continual cooperative relationship with its Bureau of Labor Statistics has benefited our work most decisively."' The specifics of the Bureau's role, however, are not well known. Referring to the forecasts the Bureau made during the last year of World War II that the postwar demand for steel would be strong, contrary to the opinion of many experts, Leontief held that the accuracy of this forecast provided evidence that input-output analysis was a useful tool for decisionmakers?