As an information professional working in Florida, I routinely encounter requests for Florida-specific business and economic data. One of my favorite fishing holes for this type of information is the Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) at the University of Florida ("Tracking Florida's Population and Economy Since 1929"). While some resources from this agency cost money -- i.e., the Florida Statistical Abstract, which can be found in virtually every Florida library anyway -- there is plenty of information available here for free. Population estimates, demographic data, housing and building data, price indexes, working papers, research reports... The BEBR in the News archive alone is quite valuable, as it offers both press releases and links to news articles citing BEBR information.
At some point, it occurred to me that university-based resources like this probably exist in every state and that, perhaps, someone somewhere has compiled a list of these. And that is how I discovered the Association for University Business and Economic Research (AUBER)
The Association for University Business and Economic Research
Advances research in business, economics, and public policy;
Promotes the collection, analysis, and dissemination of business, economic, and public policy information, with emphasis on regional issues;
Facilitates continuous improvement in the management, research, and services of AUBER members; and
Demonstrates the importance of the economic development, outreach, and research roles of AUBER members, and increases the visibility of member units to their colleges, universities, and other constituencies.
The interactive map here makes it easy to locate university-based economic research agencies in every state and, sometimes, individual AUBER members who are associated with these agencies. Click on a state and you get a listing of agencies beneath the map. Click on the name of an agency for more information, including address, phone/fax/e-mail, key individuals, types of research activities performed and a link to the website, where available. Alternately, you can use the search form to locate people by title or last name, or agencies by research activity.
There's also a searchable database of publications available from the various research agencies. Search by keyword, state, title or university, or view listings by publication type: Articles, Business Directories, Data Profiles, Economic Forecasts, Electronic Publications, Factbooks, Journals, Monographs, Newsletters, Statistical Abstracts. Note that these are title listings only; they don't link to the actual publications, or even to the agencies that produced them. So if you see something you'd like to look at, you'll have to go back and rummage around in the institution listings to locate the website of the agency that produced it, and then visit that website to find the document. (Alternately, of course, you can just try searching on the title in Google or any other large web engine.) It's kind of inconvenient, but at least it gives you a quick look at what types of reports are available from these research units.
Bonus resources -- other places to look for state and regional business/economic information:
Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories, published in 2007 is a review of how small businesses fared in their respective states and how they contributed to the economic condition in their states and that of the United States. This annual profile contains sections on the following topics: the number of firms, industry composition, small business income, banking, women and minority business ownership, and employment.
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