Public Records for Economists

One of the big secrets and struggles of good economics research is locating and accessing appropriate data. Often state governments store data that will be useful and many are responsible for releasing their information for the sake of transparency.

More information on the public records legislation for each state can be found here and here. Learning how to write the letter well is difficult but doable. Here is a request that I've submitted.

There is also good guidance put together here by some FOIA lawyers (say that five times fast). If you have a large research budget burning holes in your pocket, pushing through a few FOIA requests might be nice.

The Federal government has website that keeps track of the contact information for the FOIA office in each federal department. That can be found here.

"For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad." Luke 8:17

"Therefore, that we should ... wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness." D&C 123

Keywords: Andrew Johnston, Andrew, Johnston, Education, Wharton, vita, curriculum vitae, cv, economics, applied economics, economist, microeconomics, empirics, empirical economics, Andrew Johnston, Andrew, Johnston, economics, applied economics, economist, microeconomics, empirics, empirical economics, Wharton, Andrew Johnston, Economics, Andrew Johnston economics