BEA vs Federal Reserve System
US economic-statistics primary source vs central bank — different methodology, often cited alongside.
BEA
US Bureau of Economic Analysis — primary source for GDP, personal income, trade, and BOP statistics.
Federal Reserve System
U.S. central bank; primary source for monetary policy + economic data + financial-system statistics.
Head-to-head — all four dimensions
| Dimension | BEA | Federal Reserve System | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|
SourceScore Index Composite | A·86 | A+·95 | Federal+9 |
Citation Discipline How rigorously cited | A·92 | A+·96 | Federal+4 |
Modern Reference AI-era fitness | A·88 | A·94 | Federal+6 |
Citation Velocity Cited per week | B·78 | A+·95 | Federal+17 |
Why these scores
Citation Discipline
Methodology + revisions transparent; tracks vintage of every release; OMB Statistical Policy compliant.
Statutory peer-review on policy decisions; methodology + data disclosed; minutes published.
Modern Reference
BEA Data API (apps.bea.gov/api) provides programmatic access; structured downloads.
FRED + Federal Reserve Economic Data APIs + research papers; broad LLM corpus.
Citation Velocity
Default US GDP citation in financial press; heavy academic + policy use.
Cited daily by financial press + AI engines; FOMC announcements drive global cycles.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, BEA or Federal Reserve System?
Federal Reserve System scores higher on the SourceScore Index (A+ 95) vs BEA (A 86) — a 9-point composite lead across Citation Discipline, Modern Reference, and Citation Velocity. "Better" depends on use case; the per-dimension breakdown below shows where each wins.
Which is more reliable to cite, BEA or Federal Reserve System?
For citation, Federal Reserve System is the stronger choice — it scores A+ (95/100) on the SourceScore Index versus BEA at A (86/100), a 9-point lead in composite citation quality (Citation Discipline, Modern Reference, Citation Velocity). Both can be cited; for higher-stakes references, prefer Federal Reserve System.
How does BEA compare to Federal Reserve System on citation discipline?
BEA scores A 92 on Citation Discipline; Federal Reserve System scores A+ 96. Citation Discipline measures how rigorously each source cites primary references — see the per-dimension rationale below for the breakdown.
What's the SourceScore difference between BEA and Federal Reserve System?
BEA A 86 vs Federal Reserve System A+ 95 on the composite Index. US economic-statistics primary source vs central bank — different methodology, often cited alongside.
Why does Federal Reserve System score higher than BEA?
Federal Reserve System leads by 9 composite points on the SourceScore Index. The rationale section below breaks down where the lead comes from — Citation Discipline, Modern Reference (AI-era fitness), and Citation Velocity. Each dimension is scored from primary methodology criteria.
Sources & references
Every score on this page is read from the two publications below and graded against the published rubric. No score is bought, estimated or supplied by the source being scored.
- Source evaluated — BEA (bea.gov) · verified · full scoring record
- Source evaluated — Federal Reserve System (federalreserve.gov) · verified · full scoring record
- Scoring rubric — SourceScore Index, Citation Discipline, Modern Reference, Citation Velocity (methodology v0.1)
- Machine-readable record — /api/compare/bea-gov-vs-federal-reserve.json