Dave Altig
Dave Altig
is executive vice president and chief economic adviser at the Federal
Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He serves on the executive leadership team for the
Bank's economic mobility and resilience strategic priority, is an executive
cosponsor of the Working Families Employee Resource Network, and is an
adviser to the executive leadership committee.
Jose Maria Barrero
Jose Maria Barrero is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Instituto
Tecnológico Autónomo de México, where he conducts
empirical and quantitative research in macroeconomics and finance, focusing
on firm behavior under uncertainty. He joined the SBU research team while he
was a PhD student at Stanford University. He holds a BA in Economics and
Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA and PhD in
Economics from Stanford University.
Nicholas (Nick) Bloom
Nick Bloom
is a professor of economics at Stanford University and a codirector of the
Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship program at the National Bureau
of Economic Research. His research focuses on management practices and
uncertainty. He previously worked at the U.K. Treasury and McKinsey &
Company. He holds a bachelor's degree from Cambridge University, a master's
degree from Oxford University, and a PhD from University College London.
Steven J. Davis
Steven J. Davis is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a senior fellow at the
Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), and professor
emeritus at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His research
focuses on labor market outcomes, business performance, economic
fluctuations, and uncertainty. He is an elected fellow of the Society of
Labor Economists, former editor of the
American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, economic adviser to the
U.S. Congressional Budget Office, and senior fellow with the Asian Bureau of
Finance and Economics Research. He is also a co-creator of the Economic
Policy Uncertainty Indices, and he co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy
Forum, held annually in Singapore. Davis received a PhD in economics from
Brown University in 1986 and joined the Booth faculty in 1985.
Brent Meyer
Brent Meyer
is an assistant vice president and economist in the research department at
the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. His primary research interests include
firm behavior, survey methods, inflation, inflation expectations,
macroeconomics, and monetary policy. In addition to providing monetary
policy support, Meyer heads up our
Economic Survey Research Center (ESRC), is involved in research using our Business Inflation Expectations (BIE),
Survey of Business Uncertainty (SBU), and CFO surveys, contributes to the
Atlanta Fed's
Inflation Project, and to the Atlanta Fed's
macroblog, which provides commentary on economic topics, including monetary policy,
macroeconomic developments, and the Southeast economy. Meyer earned a
bachelor's degree in economics from Hillsdale College and a master's degree
in economics from Bowling Green State University.
Kevin Foster
Kevin Foster is a Survey Director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He
has been leading survey efforts in the Federal Reserve System since 2009,
and before that at the United States Census Bureau starting in 2004. Foster
contributes to policy and research through his roles on the Survey &
Diary of Consumer Payment Choice, the Business Inflation Expectations
survey, and the Survey of Business Uncertainty.
Emil Mihaylov
Emil Mihaylov is a Quantitative Research Analysis Specialist at the Federal
Reserve Bank in Atlanta. He has been responsible for analyzing the SBU data
since 2019. His other areas of research include macroeconomics, forecasting,
and data and statistical analysis.
Grace Guynn
Grace Guynn is a survey manager in the Research Department at the Federal
Reserve Bank of Atlanta. She is responsible for leading survey operations
for the Economic Survey Research Center, including the recruitment and
retention of business leaders in the Survey of Business Uncertainty (SBU),
the CFO Survey and Business Inflation Expectations Survey (BIE).
Past Contributor
Mike Bryan
Michael Bryan was a vice president and senior economist in the research
department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, where he was responsible
for organizing the Atlanta Fed’s monetary policy process. He came to
the Atlanta Fed in 2008, and retired from there in 2016. Before coming to
Atlanta, Bryan was at the Cleveland Fed, where he had spent 30 years in
positions of increasing responsibility. Bryan is currently serving on the
faculty of the University of South Carolina.
Lead Panel Coordinators
Henry Boston
Adrian Echavarria
Jasmine Ferrier
Eston Kuwahara
Sophia Maehl
AJ Richardson
Panel Coordinators
Davis Boor
Ananya Dondapati
Emma Leonard
Sabrena Lewis
Peyton Morgan
Geoff Point-Du-Jour
Audrey Ruth
Corinne Salter
Jordan Shiff
Isaac Shon
Helen Treseler
Kathleen Ulanday
Aurelia Vanderwilde
Franklin Zhang
Why do we conduct this survey?
The SBU elicits a 5-point probability distribution over 12-month-ahead sales, and employment for each firm. It also elicits current values of these quantities. The survey's innovative design allows the calculation of each firm's expected growth rate over the next year and its degree of uncertainty about its expectations. Policy makers and researchers can use SBU data to help forecast economic activity and better understand how business expectations and uncertainty affect employment, sales, investment, and other economic outcomes.
For information on how the Atlanta Fed handles participant data from this survey, please refer to our online privacy policy.
The Survey of Business Uncertainty Partnership
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta fields the Survey of Business Uncertainty in partnership with Steven Davis of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Nick Bloom of Stanford University. Davis and Bloom are the creators of the Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) indices and experts in the field.
For Technical Information about the SBU
Please consult "Surveying Business Uncertainty"
by David Altig, Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Mike Bryan, Steven J. Davis, Brent H. Meyer, and Nicholas Parker. Additional information about the methods used for the survey can be found in the accompanying slide deck. 
Sample Survey Forms
Panel members are split evenly into two groups. A given panel member will rotate between the sales revenue and employment forms, responding to each questionnaire every other month. In addition to the core survey questions posed in the forms below, we typically ask at least one special question each month.
Survey Release Dates
The Survey of Business Uncertainty will be released by 11 a.m. ET on the following dates:
2024
January 24
February 28
March 27
April 24
May 29
June 26
July 24
August 28
September 25
October 30
November 27
December 26
2025
January 29
February 26
March 26
April 30
May 28
June 25
July 30
August 27
September 24
October 29
November 26
December 24
