Explaining Analytical Methods
- Report
The Role of the Federal Housing Administration in the Reverse-Mortgage Market
In this report, CBO examines how FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program works, how it affects the federal budget, and how various policy approaches might reduce costs and risks to the government or to borrowers.
- Report
The Personnel Requirements and Costs of New Military Space Organizations
CBO estimates the added personnel requirements and costs of five kinds of military space organizations. DoD wants to create three, which could increase annual costs by $1 billion to $2 billion and require onetime startup costs of $2 billion to $5 billion.
- Report
Costs of Submarine Maintenance at Public and Private Shipyards
From 1993 to 2017, the Navy conducted 117 maintenance overhauls of attack submarines and sent 29 to private shipyards. Overhauls conducted at private shipyards were 31 percent less expensive, on average, a gap that has narrowed recently.
- Working Paper
How Do Changes in Medical Malpractice Liability Laws Affect Health Care Spending and the Federal Budget? Working Paper 2019-03
Updating its approach to estimating the effects of changes to medical malpractice liability laws on federal spending, CBO explains how and why the modeling is changing and offers a preliminary estimate of the budgetary effects.
- Blog Post
How the 2017 Tax Act Has Affected CBO’s GDP and Budget Projections Since January 2017
CBO Director Keith Hall discusses changes to CBO’s economic forecast since January 2017 and provides an estimate of the portion of those changes that can be attributed to the enactment of the 2017 tax act.
- Presentation
An Overview of CBO's Life-Cycle Growth Model
The life-cycle growth model is one model that CBO uses to estimate the long-term effects of changes in fiscal policy. For example, the model can analyze the effects of changes to the Social Security system.
- Interactive
CBO’s Waterfall Model for Projecting Discretionary Spending, January 2019
CBO’s new interactive tool allows users to simulate the agency’s process for projecting discretionary budget authority and outlays for different types of spending over the course of 10 years.
- Report
Marginal Federal Tax Rates on Labor Income: 1962 to 2028
In this report, CBO projects, on the basis of current law, marginal federal tax rates on labor income from 2018 through 2028. So that current trends can be understood in a historical context, the projections are accompanied by rates from 1962.
- Report
Measuring the Costs of Federal Insurance Programs: Cash or Accrual?
In this report, CBO assesses the usefulness of cash and accrual accounting for several federal insurance programs—including deposit, flood, and pension insurance—and considers ways to increase use of accrual measures in the budget process.
- Working Paper
CBO’s Model for Forecasting Business Investment: Working Paper 2018-09
This paper presents CBO’s model of business investment, compares it with other models of investment, shows how the model is estimated, and discusses how CBO uses the model to forecast investment.