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Fall Conference Report:
Virtual, Digital, and Funded
New England Economic
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The Scholarly Web Site
A Visit to the Worcester
Women's History Project
News from NEBIC
Announcements
ACRL/NEC Spring 2000
Conference
NETSL Spring 2000
Conference
ITIG Presents
"Emerging
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ACRL New England
Chapter News Online
Winter 2000, No. 89
New England Online Economic
Information: Academic vs. Government
David McChesney
University of Connecticut, Storrs
Shelley Cudiner
University of Connecticut, Stamford
The Business Librarian's Interest Group (BLIG) invited two
economists to discuss New England economic information
online at the winter 1999 meeting on December 1, at Bentley
College, Waltham, MA. The first speaker, Dr. Stephen Coelen,
Professor of Political Science, is also the founder and
director of the Massachusetts Institute for Social and
Economic Research (MISER) at the University of
Massachusetts. The second speaker, Dr. Yolanda Kodrzycki, is
Assistant Vice President and Economist at the Federal
Reserve Bank of Boston. Both are heavily involved in using,
analyzing, and providing economic and demographic data about
New England.
Dr. Coelen started his presentation with an overview of MISER, a fully staffed research institute at UMASS. MISER offers a variety of planning, forecasting, and information services to Massachusetts businesses and governmental and municipal agencies. The Institute has been designated as the State Data Center by the Governor and has a liaison to the Federal Census Bureau.
Most librarians are familiar with how difficult it is to access and manipulate federal census data. MISER accesses and enhances census data for Massachusetts, making it easier to use for the layman. They also act as a national business trade center and work with NAFTA data, Foreign Trade Data, and data from the Foreign Trade Division of the Bureau of the Census. The federal government has recognized the usefulness of MISER’s national export data by incorporating it into the Globus & NTDB (National Trade Data Bank) in STAT-USA (http://www.stat-usa.gov) as the U.S. export data. Data can be viewed by state of origin or by Standard Industrial Code (SIC)/ Harmonized Code arrangement.
Dr. Coelen is interested in expanding MISER’s services to the entire New England region to serve as a data provider and repository. He proposed that the socioeconomic data in MISER’S Massachusetts Policy Database (MASH) (http://www.umass.edu/miser/mash) be broadened to include similar content for all New England states. He is actively seeking partnerships with other New England states and looking to form alliances with researchers, librarians, and technologists to accomplish these goals. To learn more about MISER, see their web site at http://www.umass.edu/miser. An excellent example of the reports they produce is available at http://www.umass.edu/miser/news/dd984.pdf.
Dr. Kodrzycki works in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, where she collects and analyzes data for the government and the banking industry. One of the major functions of the FRB is to provide data to support the federal government’s monetary policy. The Boston Federal Reserve is responsible for New England data, with the exception of Fairfield County in Connecticut.
The Bank produces numerous publications, including New England Economic Review, New England Banking Trends, and New England Fiscal Facts. One of their most notable publications, New England Economic Indicators, covers labor markets, income, consumer prices, consumer confidence, real estate, new business incorporations, merchandise exports, electricity sales, and state tax collections. Dr. Kodrzycki explained the different resources used to collect data. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides much of the employment data, the export data is from MISER, and the real estate data comes from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The articles and data produced are also available at the Boston Federal Reserve Web site in different file formats.
Dr. Kodrzycki is also the president of the New England Economic Project, a volunteer organization dedicated to providing reliable and accessible economic data on New England economic issues. NEEP publishes macroeconomic forecasts and maintains historical data. The projections include data and statistics on employment, income, inflation, unemployment, labor force, net interstate migration, and detailed population estimates for the region and its six individual states.
To learn more about the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, see their web site at http://www.bos.frb.org/. To learn more about the New England Economic Project, see their web site at http://www.neepecon.org. Dr. Kodrzycki recommended the New England Board of Higher Education’s web site, New England Online for state and regional information, found at http://www.newenglandonline.org.
There were 14 attendees at the meeting, including several new members. Thanks to Andree Rathemacher, Julie Jersyk, Dave McChesney, Mary Nicolini and Colleen Anderson for another successful program.