ECO 310                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Dr. Robert Jantzen
Econometrics                                                                                                                                                                                                               Economics Department
 


Internet Data Resources



This form briefly describes how to search the web for economic data and how to download and "convert" such data so that it can be analyzed by a regression program.  The form also contains a brief list of web sites that have lots of economic data and links to other sites. 

I.  Searching the Web

    Among the possible ways to find economic and other kinds of data on the World-Wide-Web (WWW), you can:

  • start up your web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.), click on the Search button at the top of the screen, and type in the kind of resources your interested in.  For example, if your interested in economics data, type in economics data.  If your interested in crime data, type in crime data.  The search engine will then display possible sources of such information, that you can access by clicking on the highlighted, underlined, blue name.
  • use Bill Goffe's Resources for Economists excellent web page (click on the Data link) to find links to a wide variety of data sources.
  • use Freelunch.com's easy to use (& free) data repository of economic and financial time series (they require an e-mail address to gain access).
  • use John Kane's Econometric Research Resources (click on the Data Sources link) to find links to a wide variety of data sources.
  • use other sites that provide access to data, including the following:
II.  Downloading, saving and preprocessing the data
     Once you have found the data set(s) that you want to use, you can download and save that data by:
  • if the website offers a choice of file formats, choose Excel (or other spreadsheet) format first, comma-delimited second, and text (or dat) format third.  Data files written in WordProcessor and other formats may be difficult to convert for Gretl use.  Save the data to a floppy/zip or hard drive. 
  • if the website doesn't offer to "export" the data for you, you can use the following steps to download and save the data.  First open up the MS-Wordpad program (<Start><Program><Accessories><WordPad>), then cut and paste the data from your browser into Wordpad (highlight the numbers you want to copy by "dragging" your mouse over it and then paste it into Wordpad by clicking <Edit><Paste>).   Then while in Wordpad, save the file as a text document (<File><Save As> and then choose "Text Document" as the file type and give the file a name).  Be forewarned that data files written in text formats formats may be difficult to convert for Gretl use.
  • IMPORTANT!!!!! After you have saved the data, you must record a complete citation for the source of your data.  That citation must include: 
        i.  the website address that you obtained the data from 
        ii. the name of the file that you downloaded 
        iii. the date(s) the data refer to 
        iv.  a complete and thorough description of the variables downloaded 
        v.  the date that you completed the download 
    Once you have downloaded the data into a file(s), you will have to use Microsoft Excel to convert it into a format that Gretl can read.  To convert the file, start up Excel, then "load" the file by clicking on <File><Open> and, if necessary, changing the "Files of type" box to the appropriate file type.  If the file is not one that Excel can load directly, Excel will then offer some choices of "delimiters" such as comma, tabs, etc. which indicate how the data elements are separated from one another.  Identify the appropriate "delimiter" and have Excel process the file.  Inspect the worksheet that Excel creates to make sure it converted the file values correctly.  Then save the data worksheet as an MS-Excel comma delimited file (csv) worksheet which can be loaded into the Gretl program.