What's New — March 2001

Last Chance to Take the EconData.Net User Survey

The returns are rolling in; make sure your vote is counted. The deadline for participating in the EconData.Net User's Survey is March 10. Take two minutes to complete our point-and-click, web-based survey and let us know what you think of our site and this newsletter, and back your candidate for our updated Ten Best sites for socioeconomic data. It's a short you can take right now, by going to:
(NOTE:  The Survey Closed on March 10)

SITE OF THE MONTH:  University of Virginia's GeoStat

We've always liked the University of Virginia's GeoStat site. GeoStat is shorthand for the Geospatial and Statistical Data Center. It's an excellent guide to a number of resources including Census and BEA data, and rates high on user- friendliness. The site is frequently updated, and the current page highlights links to election return data and the latest releases from the 2000 Census. The site also contains a number of useful supporting documents, like explanations of SIC and FIPS codes and other arcane, but necessary, information. Well worth a visit, go to:
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/reference/index.html

NEW LINKS ADDED

We've added a number of new links this month, focusing on sites that offer data on housing, real estate and finance.

As every good data analyst knows, most statistics are the byproduct of some tax or regulation. Some of the most interesting housing statistics are no exception. You can learn a lot about housing markets and the characteristics of home borrowers by investigating the reports filed by banks to comply with the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, HMDA. Data is available for metropolitan areas.  Visit the Federal Financial Institutions Examing Council site at: http://www.ffiec.gov/hmda_rpt/agg_1999.htm

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation guarantees deposits made in federally regulated financial institutions, and as part of its activities compiles a wide range of statistics. Some of the highlights of their site include: 
A Survey of Real Estate Trends. Prepared by the FDIC, this report summarizes the views of regional bank examiners on trends in real estate in different parts of the country. 
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/analytical/survey/index.html

Statistics on Banking. This is a quarterly publication that provides detailed aggregate financial information as well as key structural data (number of institutions and branches) for all FDIC-insured institutions. 
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/statistical/statistics/index.html

State Banking Performance Summary. This site provides an aggregate summary of up to three years' key financial and ratio data for commercial banks and savings institutions in each state. Information is available dating back to June 1997,
http://www2.fdic.gov/qbp/qbpSelect.asp?menuItem=STBL

Historical Statistics on Banking. Here you'll find state level data on commercial banks (from 1966 on) and for savings institutions (from 1984) on, including numbers of institutions, branches, income and balance sheet data, and other detailed information. You can also get historical data on bank and thrift failures.
http://www2.fdic.gov/hsob/

FDIC Institution Directory. The FDIC Institution Directory provides the latest comprehensive financial data for every FDIC-insured institution, including the most recent quarterly balance sheets, income statements and performance and condition ratios.
http://192.147.69.47/IDASP


Patent Data: A Window on the Knowledge Economy

Most of our conventional economic statistics measure employment and the physical manifestations of economic activity: sales, investments, housing, goods movement and the like. As we move increasingly to a knowledge-based economy, analysts are looking for ways to measure the creation of new ideas as an indicator of economic vitality. One of the most useful web-based resources is patent data generated by the Technology Assessment and Forecast Branch of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. You'll find a complete guide to their resources at:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/brochure.htm

You can use their website to drill-down to particular states, metropolitan areas and counties to determine the number of patents issued in a given year. Since patents are public records, you can get data on individual firms and inventors. The patent office also has its own system for classifying inventions, so you can identify the technological specializations of particular areas and individual companies. The site also contains an interesting table and map showing the number of patents issued per ten-thousand residents for different metropolitan areas in the US.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/pc98_ut.pdf

These same data are available in spreadsheet format at:
ftp://ftp.uspto.gov/pub/taf/misc/metro_area_99_percap/Utility.xls

Non-Employer Statistics

The most commonly available economic statistics are based on data generated from employment tax records. In recent years, however, the number of self-employed individuals has increased rapidly. However, there are relatively few statistics that measure their economic impact. One data series generated from administrative records by the Census Bureau as part of the Economic Census, called "Nonemployer statistics", offers a detailed picture of small firms that have no wage and salary employees, a category that includes many self-employed businesses. These data are available by state, metro area and county, with total number of establishments and total taxable income for non-employer establishments, by NAICS industry, for 1997. You'll find this data presented in a series of drill-down tables at:
http://www.census.gov/epcd/nonemployer/
You can also download the entire report, in Adobe Acrobat format, at:
http://www.census.gov/prod/ec97/97x-cs4.pdf