June 2005  

The EconData.Net Monthly Newsletter

SITE OF THE MONTH:  Dynamic Chloropleth Maps

EPA's Mapping Site:  Fast and Easy Mapping of US Counties Nationwide 
So what, you may ask, is a chloropleth map?  Well, in this case, a picture is worth a thousand words.  In the case of June's site of the month, the picture you'll want to see is a color-coded map of the roughly 3,100 counties in the United States, hooked up to  a database that lets you map air and water quality, crime rates, population, employment, weather, race, unemployment--you name it.   The Dynamic Chloropleth Mapping tool has been developed by William P. Smith and Steve Young of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The chloropleth mapping function is hooked up to hundreds of county level data series, and, by default, displays data grouped by thirds (the highest third of counties, the middle third the lowest third).  In this case of this map, though, dynamic means you can use sliders on the web to change the break points between each third, to show, for example, the top 10% of all counties in the US according to some variable--the color coding of counties changes as you move the slider.  Mouse over a county and you see its name and the value for the current data series.  Click and hold down the map and you automatically zoom in.  Click again, and the map returns to the entire nation.  One of the most powerful and interesting features of the mapping function is its ability to filter the data you see by using other variables.  For example, you could look just at the highest one-third of counties by income and map variations in their average travel time.    You can also easily build your own statistical functions out of combinations of variables, for example, computing the number of tons of carbon dioxide emitted per employed worker.

Nearly all of this data is available elsewhere on the web--at the sites of other federal agencies--but this tool lets you quickly and easily  see the geographic pattern of the data.  
http://www.turboperl.com/dcmaps.html

BEA Customer Satisfaction Survey

Let BEA Know What Data You Use -- and New Data You'd Like to See 
One of the big three data providers, the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is asking data users for comments and an evaluation of its data and services.  At EconData.Net we urge you to take this opportunity to let BEA know what you think--BEA uses this information to decide its priorities for making improvements. If you use and care about BEA regional data of various kinds--everything from the Regional Economic Information System (REIS), to Gross State Product estimates, to the RIMS economic multipliers--this is your opportunity to make your voice heard.  And for those of you with an interest in the proposed Gross Metropolitan Product (GMP) series, this is one more opportunity to encourage BEA to move ahead on this idea.

The BEA Customer Satisfaction Survey is open until July 8, at: http://www.bea.gov/bea/internetsurvey/survey.cfm?survey_id=internet5

Location of Biotechnology Startups

Where academic entrepreneurs start new biotech businesses 
A new report from the Public Policy Institute of California provides  valuable insights into the way the nation's biotechnology industry grows.  The report -- The Dynamics of California's Biotechnology Industry in California -- written by PPIC economists Junfu Zhang and Nikesh Patel, focuses on California firms, but also provides some key data on the industry nationally.  

It's well known that many biotech companies are started by academic researchers who get venture funding to try transform their research findings into marketable products.  Zhang and Patel use data from Venture One to track 282 academic entrepreneurs -- researchers who started biotech companies.  Table 4.5 of their report (page 70) summarizes, by state, where these scientists had done their research and where they started their companies.  They find that more than two-thirds of researchers started businesses in the state in which they had done their research.  About 40 percent  of the academic entrepreneurs came from California and Massachusetts, and these two states captured a majority (66 of 115) of the researchers that moved across state lines.  The full report 160-page report is available as an Adobe Acrobat pdf file.    
http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/R_405JZR.pdf

User's Note on BLS Location Quotient Calculator

BLS calculator currently includes only private sector employment
Last month, we highlighted the Bureau of Labor Statistics location quotient calculator as EconData.Net's  site of the month.  Alert reader Art Ayre, who is an Economist for the Oregon Employment Department, offered this helpful hint about using the calculator.  Be aware it currently includes only data on private-sector employment.   If public sector employment is an important component of the economy you are looking at--think state capitals, or communities with major public institutions--you may not see this reflected in the location quotient.    Thanks for the tip, Art!
http://data.bls.gov/LOCATION_QUOTIENT/servlet/lqc.ControllerServlet

Newsletter of the Month:  Eye on the Economy Newsletter

National Association of Homebuilders Eye on the Economy
Want to track the latest trends in the economy, especially as they affect the housing sector?  You'll want to take a look at this biweekly analysis prepared by NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders.  
http://www.nahb.org/page.aspx/category/sectionID=190

NEW LINKS

Environmental Resources
June's New Links highlight a series of sites with useful information on environmental issues including clean water permits, drought, wetlands, and invertebrate species.

• Environmental Working Group
  Clean Water Report Card
  Data on expired clean water permits, by state.
  http://www.ewg.org/pub/home/reports/reportcard/home.html
  

• National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  Drought Monitor
  http://drought.unl.edu/ndmc/dm/index.html
  

• U.S. Conference of Mayors
  Recycling America's Land (Feb. 2000)
  Abandoned or underutilized properties where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or
  perceived environmental contamination.)
  http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/news/press_releases/documents/brownfields022400_final.asp
  

• U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
  National Wetlands Inventory
  Access to data on the characteristics, extent, and status of the Nation’s wetlands and deepwater habitats, through mapping tool, data download, and publications.
  http://www.nwi.fws.gov/
  

• U.S. Geological Survey
  Gap Analysis Program
  State assessments of the conservation status of native vertebrate species and natural land cover types
  http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/Projects/States/default.htm