Kansas City Federal Statistical Research Data Center

Located in the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the KC RDC is a member of the US Census Bureau's Federal Statistical Research Data Center Network. These labs allow qualified and approved researchers to access demographic, economic, and health-related microdata in a secure computing facility. 

Data Available

Economics

Data on business establishments. 

• Census of Manufacturers
• Longitudinal Business Data
• Annual Survey of Manufacturers
• Survey of Business Owners
• Business Research & Development and Innovation Survey

Demographics

Restricted versions of these datasets include more complete geography. While individual identifiers have been removed, there are ways to link individuals across time and surveys. 

• American Community Survey
• Decennial Census
• National Crime Victimization Survey 
• National Survey of College Graduates
• Survey of Income and Program Participation Panels

Health 

Including datasets from NCHS and AHRQ. 

• National Health Interview Survey
• National Immunization Survey
• Mortality and Multiple Mortality Vital Statistics 
• National Survey of Fertility Grown
• Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Economic Analysis 

• Unemployment and employment
• Compensation and working conditions
• Prices and living conditions
• Direct investment
• Services

Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD)

The LEHD aims to use unemployment insurance records to match employer data with employee data. 

• Business Register Bridge. 
• Employer Characteristics File 
• Geocoded Address List
• Individual Characteristics
• Quarterly Workforce Indicators
• Unit-to-Worker

Proposal Development

Researchers seeking to access restricted-use data must first work with the RDC administrator to develop a proposal. The proposal development process is rigorous and can take 6 to 12 months or more. Steps in the process are outlined here for reference. 

Writing a Proposal

These guidelines outline the information to include in an RDC proposal. 

Introduction

This is an overview of the project that will demonstrate the intellectual merit of the project, provide motivation for the major research questions and aims, and discuss, briefly, the benefits to Census (discussed in more detail below). These introduction should not inundate reviewers with all possible citations and research on a topic (that is, this is not a literature review) but rather include as much context as necessary to motivate the aims and identify the gap in the research that will be filled. This section will briefly discuss the analytic method and data sources.

Methodology/Analytic Approach

During the review process, reviewers will look for feasibility of the project – both with data availability and methodological approach. Therefore, this section is will be detailed. Specifically, this section should describe how your key measures will be operationalized, what datasets they will come from, and what methods you will use to address each of the focal aims. While the format is author-specific, this section should avoid surface-level explanations and equation expressions, but instead should situate the methodology within the substantive framing of the project.

Data 

This section is where you will discuss the need for the requested Census-provided datasets and list all of the datasets and their respective years for which you want access. Additionally, this is where you will discuss whether you will bring in any external data. For example, publicly-available Census data is not accessible in the RDC. Instead, researchers will provide the public-use data and merge it to the restricted-use data. This section should also address how data will be merged.

Project Output and Disclosure Risk

Here is where you will discuss what types of information you will produce and use in external documents, such as conference presentations, working papers, or journal publications. Depending on your analyses, your project may have a higher risk of disclosure, so you should discuss what will be done to avoid potential disclosure.

Project Duration and Funding 

Finally, you will discuss how long you will take to complete the project. Note that the average timeline is 5 years. Additionally, you will indicate how the project will be funded. For example, some researchers are members of a university or organization that is part of a consortium that support the RDC. For those that do not fall into that category, you will work with the RDC Director to determine potential fees.

Contact Us

Contact the Kansas City Federal Statistical Research Data Center staff to get started: 

• Shawn Ratcliffe, Census Administrator
• Jason P. Brown, Vice President and Economist, Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank and KC RDC Executive Director