The Author's Page for
	The Handbook of Key Economic Indicators:
	Economic-Indicators.Com

NOTICE: Economic-Indicators.com is moving to RogersEconomics.com

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WEB SITES FOR DOWNLOADING DATA

This site has links to (1) actual data for macroeconomic data series and (2) forecast data from various private sector, government sector and academic economists. Forecast data links are on the latter part of this page.

ACTUAL DATA

• Federal Reserve Economic Database (FRED), St. Louis Fed

FRED is an excellent publicly accessible site for macroeconomic data. Data Base Categories are: Business/Fiscal Data, Daily/Weekly U.S. Financial Data, Exchange Rate, Balance of Payments and Trade Data, Gross Domestic Product and Components, Monthly Commercial Banking Data, Monthly Consumer Price Indexes, Monthly Employment and Population Data, Monthly Interest Rates, Monthly Monetary Data, Monthly Producer Price Indexes. Regional Data, including Employment and Banking Statistics, Monthly Reserves Data.

• ArchivaL Rederal Reserve Economic Database (ALFRED), St. Louis Fed

Using ALFRED™ you can retrieve vintage versions of data that were available on specific dates in history. In general, economic data for past observation periods are revised as more accurate estimates become available. As a result, previous vintages of data can be superceded and may no longer be available from various data sources.

• Economagic.com : Economic Time Series Page

Data and charts for more than 100,000 series. Excel files for nearly 8,500 series. Probably the broadest coverage for a largely free site. Subscription area for forecast series but low cost. Excellent for research. Site developed by a practicing economagician, err, econometrician, you know, one of them.

• FreeLunch.com.   Over a million data series on a no fee basis. Registration required.

• STAT-USA   Very extensive databases for low annual fees.

• U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

Source for employment data, prices, employment costs among others. Has a searchable database.

• National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Macrohistory Database

An in-depth database of many historical series that are discontinued but of historical importance. Numerous series extend back to 1800s.

• National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Online Economic Data, Overall Contents
• Statistical Abstract of the United States
• "Beige Book," Current and Historical Releases , and by "Economic Event," maintained by Minneapolis Fed. Recommended for insight into views of U.S. economic events as they unfolded.

An outstanding database. Current Beige Book from the Federal Reserve System and historical Beige Books going back to 1983. Timeline of major economic "crises" or "events" and links to Beige Books for those events.

FORECAST DATA

• Philadelphia Fed's Professional Forecasters Survey

The Survey of Professional Forecasters is the oldest quarterly survey of macroeconomic forecasts in the United States. The survey began in 1968 and was conducted by the American Statistical Association and the National Bureau of Economic Research. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia took over the survey in 1990. Mean, median, and individual forecasts for a variety of macroceconomic variables. Short-term and long-term forecasts. Downloadable. Links to research citations using these series. Summary analysis of the forecasts with each current release of this report.

• Philadelphia Fed's "Livingston Survey" of economists' expectations

The Livingston Survey was started in 1946 by the late economist Joseph A. Livingston. It is the oldest continuous survey of economists' expectations. It summarizes the forecasts of economists from industry, government, banking, and academia. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia took responsibility for the survey in 1990. Covers a variety of macroeconomic variables. Most popular set of data for academics developing models with variables for expectations such as for inflation. Downloadable. Current forecasts and historical data available. Summary analysis of forecasts.

• Economagic.com : Economic Time Series Page

Data and charts for more than 100,000 series. Excel files for nearly 8,500 series. Probably the broadest coverage for a largely free site. Subscription area for forecast series but low cost. Excellent for research. Site developed by a practicing economagician, err, econometrician, you know, one of them.

DIRECT LINKS TO FREQUENTLY REQUESTED SPECIAL SERIES

• "US Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions" from National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Table of U.S. official business cycle peaks, troughs, and duration.

• CPI Historical Series Back to 1913

This is a special link to one page on the BLS database. A long history of the CPI is a frequently requested series. Monthly and annual data, not seasonally adjusted, levels and percentage changes.

• Consumer Price Index Research Series

The CPI Research Series are series newly created in mid-1999 to put select CPI series on comparable basis going back to 1978. Official CPI series are not revised back historically when new methodologies are introduced. Unpublished data. In convenient Excel 5.0/95 format on Economic-Indicators.Com.

• Minimum Wage, U.S.

Table showing history of changes in minimum wage in U.S.

• Poverty Level Income Thresholds, U.S., Census Bureau Basis.

Thresholds for families, by number in household: one adult and by number of adults and children for various years.

• Poverty Guidelines (Poverty Thresholds), U.S., Dept. of Health & Human Services Bureau Basis.

Thresholds for families, by number in household but does not distinguish between adults and children.

• Payroll Witholding Rates for FICA, Medicare, Social Security, self-employed: American Payroll Association.  Link is usually found on this site's home page.

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