THE DEVELOPMENT OF TABLE-ORIENTED REFERENCE ARCHIVES AND WORKING LIBRARIES FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH

THE PROPOSED PROJECT TABLES WILL TEST THE FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING A SYSTEM OF TABLE-ORIENTED REFERENCE ARCHIVES AND WORKING LIBRARIES FOR THE PERSONAL COMPUTER FROM THE DATA MADE AVAILABLE BY NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL ORGANIZATIONS. TABLES WILL ADDRESS THREE PROBLEMS: (1) THE INTEGRATION OF DOCUMENTATION AND DATA THROUGH A TABLE-ORIENTED FORMATTING SYSTEM; (2) THE CREATION OF REFERENCE ARCHIVE DATABASES FROM THE DOCUMENTATION AND DATA PROVIDED BY NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL ORGANIZATIONS; AND (3) THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPROPRIATE SOFTWARE FOR RETRIEVING AND PROCESSING DATA IN REFERENCE ARCHIVES TO DEVELOP WORKING LIBRARIES FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES. IF REFERENCE ARCHIVES AND WORKING LIBRARIES CAN BE DEVELOPED FOR USE ON PERSONAL COMPUTERS, ECONOMISTS AND OTHER SOCIAL SCIENTISTS WILL HAVE EFFECTIVE ACCESS TO LARGE BODIES OF IMPORTANT STATISTICAL DATA AT LOW COST. IN PHASE I OF THE PROJECT FIVE REFERENCE ARCHIVES AND THE ASSOCIATED SOFTWARE WILL BE DEVELOPED: (1) U.S. NATIONAL INCOME AND PRODUCT ACCOUNTS, 1929-1985; (2) U.S. CAPITAL STOCK DATA, 1929-1985; (3) U.S. FLOW OF FUNDS ACCOUNTS, 1947-1985; (4) UNITED NATIONS NATIONAL ACCOUNTS, 1978-1984; AND (5) U.S. CENSUS OF MANFACTURES TABULATIONS OF LONGITUDINAL ESTABLISHMENT DATA, 1972-1981,