Economics Data Sources

This will always be out-of-date: websites change, new ones are added and I don't know all of them in the first place.
I checked the following links July 2003.

There are many data sources on the internet and many organizations with lists of data sources on the internet.
Here I list some of these that are quite useful, in order:

• Links to lists of data sets
• Original Sources for macro data (generally aggregate time series data such as GDP)
• Original Sources for micro data (generally large survey data sets on individuals)

Links to Lists of Data Sources

The following links give many, many data sources and can involve much trial and error to find the data you want.
These links are best to use if the macrodata and microdata links given further down do not have what you want.

• Econdata.net
• Bill Goffe: Resources for Economists on the Internet  (and then choose Data)
• Economics Consulting Services: Economics Search  (and then choose Research)
• Lexis-Nexis: Statistical Universe  (many, many data sets accessible by U.C. students).
• National Bureau of Economic Research  (the leading academic economics research center)
• University of Michigan: Documents Center  (leading university for social science data analysis
  

• Statistical Abstract of the United States. This is often the first place to go, for either macro or micro data, with over a thousand tables of key U.S. and some international data. It also gives definitions and original data sources that you can go to for more detail. Hardcopies are available in reference section of the library. Electronic copy can be obtained from Bureau of Census: Statistical Abstract (can be accessed by U.C. students) and immediately click on Statistical Abstract.
• The Economic Report to the President.  This has extensive U.S. macro time series data. Hardcopies are available in reference section of the library.

Electronic copy can be obtained e.g. from NBER on-line data
• Bureau of Economic Analysis.  Publishes Survey of Current Business and other data.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Collects the key data on employment, unemployment and earnings.
• Bureau of Census.   Many surveys including the decenniel census.
• National Center for Health Statistics.  Many health data sets including NHIS and Health United States.

The following is is a good source to obtain data in an easy form to download into Excel.

• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED)
• Economagic.com.  Very slick. Many series and automatically provides plots.

• National Trade Data Bank
• Penn World Tables

Micro data includes industry-level or firm-level data and individual-level data.

Here I give the leading survey data sets on individuals:

• Some interview different people in different years (repeated cross-section).
• Others interview the same people each year (panel data).

• ICPSR (Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)

And in some cases selected variables can be downloaded directly from the original web-site given below.
For some of these it is easy to download a few selected variables of the web. For others one can only obtain the entire data set and then select variables on ones own computer, in which case one needs specialized software as the data sets are often large. Over time more data sets will be downloadable and the information given here may be dated.

One can use these data sets as class exercises. e.g. get data on income and education and analyze. One easy one to extract data from is the PSID.
For serious research, however, one needs to look in more detail at the survey design and questionnaire to find out, for example, whether a value is 0 because it really is 0 or whether it is 0 because the person was not asked the question.

• Current Population Survey (CPS) (can be downloaded using FERRET)
• Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (PSID) (selected extracted data can be downloaded)
• National Longitudinal Studies (NLS)
• National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY)
• Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) (can be downloaded using FERRET)
• Health and Retirement Study Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (HRS) (has web downloads)
• World Bank Living Standard Measurement Study (LSMS)
• National Health Interview Survey.

Several journals require that data used in a study published in a journal be placed on archive so other researchers can attempt to replicate their results.
All but the first of these data sets tend to be highly specialized and are most suitable for use in economics Ph.D. field courses.

• Journal of Statistics Education  (for undergraduates)
• Journal of Business and Economics Statistics
• Journal of Applied Econometrics

A. Colin Cameron / UC-Davis Economics / http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/cameron