BEA Economic Areas Aligning Workforce & Economic Information Association of Public Data Users APDU 2008 Annual Meeting The Brookings Institution Washington, DC Duke Tran Regional Product Division U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

2 Presentation Overview  What are BEA Economic Areas?  Who uses them?  What is the plan for future redefinition?  Needs for new data sources

3 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis  Mission: Promote a better understanding of the U.S. economy by providing the most timely, relevant, and accurate economic accounts data in an objective and cost-effective manner  Role: The Nation’s economic accountant for National, International, Industry, and Regional accounts  Products: GDP, Personal Income, Corporate Profits, Balance of Payments, Input-Output Tables, Travel and Tourism, etc.

4 BEA’s Regional Accounts  Role : Provide users a consistent framework to study detailed geographic distribution of U.S. economic activity and growth nationwide  Products:  GDP by State and Metropolitan Area  Personal Income by State and Local Areas  Economic Multipliers  BEA Economic Areas

5 What Are BEA Economic Areas?  BEA Economic Areas define the relevant regional markets surrounding metropolitan areas  Each area consists of a central market area and surrounding counties that are economically related to the central area  Current set, redefined in 2004, 179 areas

6 Geography Hierarchy  3,141 counties in the 2000 Census:  OMB’s definition:  Core Based Statistical Areas(939)  Metropolitan Statistical Areas (363)  Micropolitan Statistical Areas (576)  Combined Statistical Areas (123)  BEA Economic Areas:  Component Economic Areas (344)  BEA Economic Areas (179)

7 The Process

8 Benefits of Using BEA EA’s  EAs provide a useful alternative geography to metropolitan areas because EAs cover all counties in the Nation  EA’s county aggregations are useful for both research and production purposes

9 Uses of BEA Economic Areas  BEA’s Regional program  Other Federal government agencies  Local and regional authorities  Private and academic researchers

10 The Challenge ─ Data Availability  Availability: Elimination of the long form in the 2010 Census  Alternative sources:  American Community Survey  Local Employment Dynamics

11 American Community Survey (ACS)  Replacing long form in the decennial censuses:  Availability  Geographies  Using ACS to redefine BEA EAs:  Benefits  Challenges

12 Local Employment Dynamics (LED)  What is Local Employment Dynamics?  LED’s tools and datasets  LED’s data characteristics

13 LED’s Benefits / Issues BENEFITS  Current  Population vs. sample  Integrated and consistent  Linkages to other data ISSUES  LED employment data exclusions  LED not yet national in scope.  LED partnership

14 Next Steps  Compare results from the new data sources  Prepare analysis to address:  ACS & LED strengths and weaknesses  Geographic details  Commuting home-to-work  Socioeconomic characteristics  Annual and multi-year data summaries

15 More Information, Questions? Duke Tran Regional Product Division U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Washington, DC