This guide is intended as a resource
for social science researchers interested in the
San Francisco Bay Area. It provides a review of
data sources, useful internet sites, and other
resources available both at UC Berkeley and in
the broader community. The focus is on Bay Area
specific resources. However, most sources of information
are not organized on a regional scale. For instance,
most government data sources are collected either
at a local level (city or county), or at a state
or federal level, rather than by region. Similarly,
much private sector information is organized by
industry sector or by company, rather than by
region. Therefore, much of the information presented
here is not specific to the San Francisco Bay
Area. However, where possible we have tried to
highlight the most useful sources for regional
analysis.
Obviously the quantity of resources
available on the web is increasing at an exponential
rate, while the quality of resources is increasing
as well, though at a somewhat slower pace. We
greatly appreciate any and all feedback, both
on the usefulness of resources listed here, as
well as on useful resources and sites we may have
missed.
The resources
listed in this section are reports that summarize
economic trends in the San Francisco Bay Area.
They provide a general overview of the regional
economy, emerging growth centers and employment
trends.
The following links are all sources
of primary data about the Bay Area, including
labor market information, economy & business,
demographics, housing, and information on government
agencies. This section is the core of this research
guide, and provides links to most of the major
sources of government and private sector data
on the Bay Area.
Association
of Bay Area Governments Data Center
This is the best place to start for data on the
Bay Area. Data that is available from this site
includes:
California Department of FinanceThe LMID is the primary source of government data on industry and occupational employment. They also provide some information on wages in particular occupations. The data is compiled from the Current Population Survey, payroll data filed with the EDD, and time-series models. There is historical data, as well as the most recently available data on unemployment, and employment by industry and occupation, as well as projections of future employment. The web site also makes available certain demographic data from the 1990 census in a useful form. The data is well organized, and is available by the entire state, by County or by Metropolitan Statistical Area. They do not have summary tables of the entire 9-county Bay Area. There is some written analysis of the data, in addition to the original numbers. The LMID also coordinates the California Cooperative Occupational Information System, a partnership of state and local agencies that produces local occupational and labor market information, and provides projections of occupational outlook in the future.
The California
Statistical Abstract , a compilation of
DOF data on social, economic and physical aspects
of the State, is now published in its entirety
on-line. This provides detailed tables, comparing
counties through-out California, in areas such
as:
The
Demographic
Research Unit of the DOF is the official
source of demographic information for State wide
planning. The data on this page is limited, but
they do provide copies of their quarterly demographic
newsletter, which summarizes recent demographic
changes, and they provide guidelines to other
data sources.
California
Economic Indicators is a bi-monthly summary
of economic trends and data relating to the State
of California.
California
Economic Diversification and Revitalization
CEDAR, California Economic Diversification and
Revitalization, is an Internet information project
of the California State Library and its California
Research Bureau; the Trade and Commerce Agency,
with funding from the Economic Development Administration
of the U.S. Department of Commerce. It provides
a useful collection of links related to California's
economy, labor markets, and various service providers.
Their collection of links and information on the
California
economy is a useful collections of government
data sources, though not exclusively on the San
Francisco Bay Area.
Regional
Economic Information Service
The REIS is a data base housed at the University
of Virginia that provides local area economic
data for states, counties, and metropolitan areas
for 1969-1994. Statistics in the data base include:
personal income and earning variables, full and
part employment variables, transfer payments variables,
and farm income and expenses variables. The REIS
data base is produced by the Bureau of Economic
Analysis.
Resources
for Economists on the Internet
This is the most detailed directory of economic
data on the Internet available. It includes everything
from detailed database sources, to on-line journals
and upcoming conferences. Many of the data sources
can be searched by County, or by State, and thus
can be used for studies of the Bay Area economy.
Government
Statistics on the Web
This is a comprehensive guide put together by
the University of Michigan to government statistics
on the web in a wide range of categories, including:
Agriculture; Business and Industry; Comprehensive
Subjects; Cost-of-Living; Demographics; Economics;
Education; Energy; Finance; Foreign Government
Data Sources; Foreign/International Economics;
Foreign Trade; Government Finances; Health; Housing;
Labor; Military; Politics; Science; Sociology;
Transportation; Weather.
Federal
Reserve Bank of San Francisco
The Federal Reserve Bank publishes monthly summaries
of economic developments in the entire Western
Region. It provides a useful summary of the context
of economic developments in the region, though
it is not very useful for detailed information
on the Bay Area.
The following is a collection
of web sites that are useful for researching particular
companies or particular industries in the Bay
Area.
EDGAR
Database of Corporate Information
EDGAR, the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis,
and Retrieval system, performs automated collection,
validation, indexing, acceptance, and forwarding
of submissions by companies and others who are
required by law to file forms with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC). It is an extremely
useful source of information on company financial
data, with detailed descriptions of primary products
and basic company analysis.
Companies
On-line
This is a directory of 75,000 public and private
companies with web sites. It was developed by
Dun & Bradstreet in cooperation with Lycos web
search engine. It is useful for providing immediate
links to company web pages.
Corporate
Watch
This is a particularly useful site for information
on the global impact of multi-national corporations.
They also have a very useful guide for researching
corporations.
Silicon Investor
This is a useful site for financial information
on high tech companies, including detailed stock
information.
American Electronics
Association
This is the nation's largest high-tech association,
representing the software, electronics and information
technology industries. They publish periodic research
reports, and have extensive links to their members
web pages. The Northern
California Directory is the quickest way to
get company profiles of high-tech companies in
the Bay Area. It provides links to all companies
with home pages on the net.
Hi-Tech
Trade Associations, Societies, Standards Groups,
and Consortia
This is a useful listing of professional and industry
associations in high-tech industries. It's a useful
way for getting information on particularly companies,
finding out about trade shows, or researching
particular occupational groupings.
California
Tourism Research
This site includes a break-down by county of expenditures,
payroll, employment and taxes generated from the
tourism industry.
California
Travel Impacts
From Dean Runyan Associates, this includes tax
revenue, employment and spending from the tourism
industry. It includes a break down by county of
travel impacts.
The California Association
of Realtors
CAR publishes research and data on housing and
real estate trends by County. They conduct detailed
research on real estate, and economic conditions
affecting the housing and construction markets.
This
is a listing of resources that are available at
UC Berkeley that are useful for researching the
Bay Area economy.
A. Library Guides to Information
Internet
Resources in Business & Economics
This is one of a series of research guides produced
by the Thomas J. Long Business & Economics Library.
It is a particularly comprehensive guide to
business and economics information sources on
the web. This is a great place to start for
general research on the economy, with a number
of useful links.
The California Economy
This is one of a series of research guides produced
by the Thomas J. Long Business & Economics Library.
It is primarily a listing of published material
on California, including data sources (e.g.
County Business Patterns, California Economic
Indicators from state Department of Finance),
as well as regular reports and analyses (e.g.
Center for Continuing Study of the California
Economy, Economic Report of the Governor). It
is useful as a general resource and a good place
to start, though it is somewhat dated (August
17, 1995) and doesn't provide many references
to on-line resources or electronic data sources.
Sources
of Information About U.S. Companies
This is one of a series of research guides produced
by the Thomas J. Long Business & Economics Library.
It is a comprehensive guide on how to research
U.S. companies and how to obtain company-specific
information. It is a comprehensive list, though
somewhat overwhelming due to the quantity of
sources listed. Specific California or Bay Area
listings include:
California Manufacturers Register Database Publishing.
Annual Product, geographical and alphabetical
list of California manufacturers. Express Reference,
T12.3.C2 D52
California Services Register Database Publishing.
Annual Industry, geographical and alphabetical
list of California service companies. Express
Reference, T12.3.C2 C3
Sources
of Business and Economic Forecasts
This is one of a series of research guides produced
by the Thomas J. Long Business & Economics Library.
This guide provides listings of published reports
from various governmental, academic and private
organizations. Specific California or Bay Area
Projections include:
California Country Projections Center for the
Continuing Study of the California Economy.
Annual. Provides projections by county for key
market variables including population and household
growth, personal and household income, and taxable
sales. See the related publication California
Population Characteristics (IGS Library A8495)
which projects major demographic trends such
as changes in ethnic makeup, age distribution,
and household characteristics. Latest in Reference
HD 107 .C2 C375
California Economic Growth Center for the Continuing
Study of the California Economy. Annual. Discusses
outlook for national economy, provides detailed
analysis of California's economic base, projections
of jobs, population, households, income and
spending, reviews construction trends, and analyzes
major economic regions in the state. Data elements
include: taxable sales, construction activity,
household income. Latest in Reference, HC 107
.C2 C25
Projections 94: Forecasts for the San Francisco
Bay Area to the Year 2010 Association of Bay
Area Governments. Annual. Projects growth and
distribution of population, households, employment,
income, jobs, and labor force characteristics
for the Bay Area. Data are presented at both
county and city levels. Data elements include:
jobs by industry, constraints to growth, mean
household income. Reference, HD 5726 .S4 P72
California
Planning
Planning Resource on the Internet: California
Planning is a selected list of approximately
70 Web links to California city & regional planning
information, including government data sources,
associations and planning schools.
Business
& Economics Library also carries many of
them. Some of the information contained in these
CD-Rom is also becoming available on-line, and
where appropriate I have included the links
as well.
American Business Disc
This is a comprehensive directory of both public
and private companies through-out the U.S. Information
on each company includes Name, Address, Phone
Number Number of Employees, Primary Business
Activity (by SIC code), and Total Sales. It
provides a comprehensive listing of companies
in the Bay Area (for example, it lists 54,751
companies in San Francisco County, 62,126 companies
in Santa Clara County and 54,804 companies in
Alameda County) but the specific data on each
company is somewhat limited. It is also somewhat
difficult to transfer to disk for personal use,
since it only allows the transfer of 75 listings
at a time. Nonetheless, it is useful for finding
companies within any particular industry or
region. The database is searchable by SIC Code,
by geography (City, State, County, Zip Code),
by employment size, by sales, and by company
name.
American Housing Survey
Current housing data are available from the
American Housing Survey (AHS), a survey conducted
by the Bureau of the Census for the Department
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The
American Housing Survey (AHS) collects data
on the Nation's housing, including apartments,
single-family homes, mobile homes, vacant housing
units, household characteristics, income, housing
and neighborhood quality, housing costs, equipment
and fuels, size of housing unit, and recent
movers. National data is collected every other
year, and data for each of 47 selected Metropolitan
Areas is collected about every four years, with
an average of 12 Metropolitan Areas included
each year. The national sample covers on average
55,000 homes. Each metropolitan areas sample
covers 2,500 or more homes. The survey is conducted
by the Bureau of the Census for the Department
of Housing and Urban Development. In addition
to being an important source of statistics on
current housing characteristics, recurrent or
one-time supplements provide data on related
topics such as transportation and energy conservation.
Also, the survey is a comprehensive source of
information on the demographic characteristics
of the household occupants.
Comprehensive Housing Affordability Survey
A statistical CD-ROM, published by the Census
Bureau for the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development. It contains data from the
1990 Census on the availability of housing at
the state, county, and place level. One particularly
useful feature is that it is designed so that
you can check the number of houses for sale
or apartments for rent at a given percentage
of the median income of a place.
County and City Data Book
A statistical CD-ROM containing data about every
region, state, county, city with a population
of 25,000 or more, or place with a population
of 2,500 or more. Depending on the geographic
level this may include information on population,
health, income, crime, housing, industry, etc.
County Business Patterns 1986
CBP provides data on the total number of establishments,
mid-March employment, first quarter and annual
payroll, and the number of establishments with
one or more paid employees. Data are tabulated
by detailed kinds of business based Standard
Industrial Cassification (SIC) designations.
The datasets contain data broken down by State
and County, as well as U.S. Summary data. Data
are provided for most of the economic divisions
of the economy including agricultural services,
mining, construction, manufacturing, transportation,
public utilities, wholesale trade, retail trade,
finance, insurance, real estate, and services.
Data are not included for agriculture production,
railroad, government, or household employment.
County Business Patterns for recent years are
also available directly at the U.S.
Census Web Page.
Current Population Survey
The Current Population Survey, a monthly household
survey conducted by the Bureau of the Census
for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, provides
a comprehensive body of information on the employment
and unemployment experience of the Nation's
population, classified by age, sex, race, and
a variety of other characteristics. It is generally
not very useful for local area analysis, though
it's widely used for national trends.
Economic Censuses, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992
A statistical CD-ROM containing data from the
many economic censuses the Commerce Department
conducts every five years. This disc reports
on the Censuses of Wholesale Trade, Retail Trade,
Service Industries, Manufacture, etc. for the
last Economic Census.
Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) file
Data on occupations and educational attainment
by race and sex for U.S. counties and states.
Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) 5% Sample
Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) contain
records representing 5% or 1% samples of the
housing units in the U.S. and the persons in
them. Detailed information on income, race,
ethnicity, class of worker, educational attainment,
industry, etc.
REIS: Regional Economic Information System
REIS is a mixed CD-ROM containing information
about personal income in different parts of
the United States. The information is available
for states, counties, and metropolitan areas.
REIS includes such information as Per Capita
Income (PCI), Total Personal Income (TPI), earnings
by industry, etc.
Security
Exchange Commission 10K Annual Reports CD
This CD includes extensive financial information
on public companies who are required to file
with the Security Exchange Commission. It includes
data on stock ownership, as well as sales, profits,
assets, etc. of major companies. The database
is searchable by SIC code, by geography (State,
area code, Zip Code), by Company Name, etc.
The number of companies included, however, is
somewhat limited. (e.g. only 276 in the 408
area code, 263 in the 415 area code and only
131 in the 510 area code.) Nonetheless, it is
extremely useful for researching major public
companies in the area.
U.S. Census
There are multiple census disks. The most useful
is STF (Statistical Tape File) 3A which covers
SF Bay Area Only.
USA County Statistics (LAN)
A statistical CD-ROM, containing data about
all the counties in the United States, collected
mostly by various federal agencies. Most of
the information comes from two books, the State
and Metropolitan Area Data Book, and the County
and City Data Book.
UC Data
This is the principal source of computerized
social science and health statistics information.
Their holdings (http://ucdata.berkeley.edu/holdings.html)
are extensive and include everything from detailed
government data sets to periodic private sector
surveys. Data is primarily available to the
UC community-Faculty, staff and students-but
can be made available for outside researchers
as well. They also maintain several on-going
projects (http://ucdata.berkeley.edu/projects.html)
which has some useful reports including
longitudinal studies of welfare and poverty
in California, and a collection of demographic
statistics on California's Latino population.
They are building an on-line CD-Rom data set
(http://ucdata.berkeley.edu/cdrom.infosys.html)
which currently includes some 250 CD-Roms of
published Federal statistics.
ABAG
Local Government Links
This site provides links to all Bay Area cities,
counties, regional agencies & special districts,
libraries, school districts, and colleges & universities.
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