Brief Overall Description of the Dataset:
The FRED Database is run by the Federal Reserve Bank at St. Louis, and it is comprised of data sets from a number of sources (including the Census). There is data for the US and other countries concerning various economic factors. “The widely used database FRED is updated regularly and allows 24/7 access to regional and national financial and economic data.” They cover banking, business/fiscal, consumer price indexes, employment and population, exchange rates, gross domestic product, interest rates, monetary aggregates, producer price indexes, reserves and monetary base, U.S. trade and international transactions, and U.S. financial data.
Link: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/
Date Inventory Completed: 6/16/2015
Screening
- Is the data collected opinion-based?
- Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
- Is there data available for 2013?
- Is the data collected at the property or housing unit level?
- Can we access the data by August 15th?
Purpose
What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?
“The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is the center of the Eighth District of the Federal Reserve System. This District includes Arkansas, eastern Missouri, southern Illinois and Indiana, western Kentucky and Tennessee, and northern Mississippi.
The Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is responsible for advising the Bank president on matters of economic policy. The Division monitors the economic and financial literature and produces research in the areas of money and banking, macroeconomics, and international and regional economics.
A diverse group of Bank publications allows the Research Division to address quickly changing economic trends, explore the relevance of historical and current data for economic policy, and expand the understanding of issues relevant to the Eighth District and beyond.
The Research Division also furnishes its working papers to provide insight into current Bank interests and developing theories and to stimulate discussion.
This site offers a wealth of economic data and information to promote economic education and enhance economic research. The widely used database FRED is updated regularly and allows 24/7 access to regional and national financial and economic data.”
Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?
This Bank collects the data to make it easily available to other people and to carry out its own research.
Who else uses the data?
Policy-makers, researchers, potentially businesses, citizens who are in economics and international relations classes
Who do they sell the data to?
They do not sell the data
Method
What is the data collection method?
The Federal Research Bank of St. Louis obtains its data from many sources. Some of these sources obtain their data from surveys and some through other means (ex: IMF ‘Discount Rate’ would have come from either observation or data supplied to the organization by the FED).
What is the type of data collected?
Administrative data and surveys
If designed, who created the questions?
FRED researchers
What is the raw source of the collected data (prior to any aggregation)?
Potentially administrative files, collection files, and surveys
Description
What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?
Economic Data
What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?
Varies between data sets
Is data collected and available periodically?
Yes
How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided?
Depends upon the source
Selectivity
What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents?
Varies from dataset to dataset
Accessibility
- How is the data accessed?
You can ‘export’ the data as an Excel file and download their output graph as various types of images (or in a PDF doc). The data can be viewed in graphical and text form or downloaded for import to a database or spreadsheet, and viewed on mobile devices.
- Is it open data?
Yes
Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?
No
Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?
None
Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? N0
Full Inventory
Description
- Features
- What is the temporal nature of the data: longitudinal, time-series, or one time point?
Time-sTTime-series
- Geospatial? If Yes, at what level?
They have a GeoFRED (http://geofred.stlouisfed.org/) site. You can probably get the data (it was a bit difficult to find out from the site), and the site does have “geographic data.” However, from a quick look, it seems this data is confined to county data or “metropolitan statistical area.”
Metadata
- Is there information available to assess the transparency and soundness of the methods to gather the data for our purposes?
It is not directly available on the site, but you could try to go to the individual sources and see if there is information there.
- Is there a description of each variable in the source along with their valid values?
For each variable that gets graphed, there is information on the variable but not extremely detailed information.
- Are there unique IDs for unique elements that can be used for linking data?
No - unless the geographic data has this
- Is there a data dictionary or codebook?
It does not appear so.
Selectivity
What unit is represented at the record level of the data source?
FRED would give you county data but no lower than this.
Does this universe match the stated intentions for the data collection? If not, what has been included or excluded and why?
Unknown
What is the sampling technique used (if applicable)?
Unknown (some of the data comes from sample data and others don’t)
What was the coverage?
Unknown (would vary for each source)
Stability/Coherence
- Were there any changes to the universe of data being captured (including geographical areas covered) and if so what were they?
Unknown
- Were there any changes in the data capture method and if so what were they?
Unknown
- Were there any changes in the sources of data and if so what were they?
Unknown
Accuracy
- Any known sources of error?
Unknown
- Describe any quality control checks performed by the data’s owner.
Do not know of any ‘quality control’ checks but can find a bit of information about how FRED deals with data here: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/help-faq
Accessibility
- Any records or fields collected, but not included in data source, such as for confidentiality reasons)?
Unknown. All of the data on the site is publicly available, but some information might have been omitted.
- Is there a subset of variables and/or data that is must be obtained through a separate process? If yes, is there a separate legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source? Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?
No
Privacy and security
- Was consent given by participant? If so, how was consent given?
Unknown
- Are there legal limitations or restrictions on the use of the data?
No
- What confidentiality policies does the source have?
No policies
Research
- What research has been done with this dataset? (e.g., impact of policies, predictors of student success)
Economic research
- Include any links to research if provided:
Research: http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/ and http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/
- List any other data use notes provided by the supplier.
Link to some FAQs about the data: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/help
Gaps/Concerns
- Feasibility - can all jurisdiction levels provide the data (if applicable)?
- Data ownership - a lack of clarity in legal guidance stemming from a lack of clarity with who owns digital data?
- Data collection authority - what data is reasonably private and what constitutes unwarranted intrusion?
- Describe any other notes you have or any gaps/concerns you see with this dataset: