Research Staff and Resources
Computing and Data Resources
Computing facilities in the economic research divisions at the Board of Governors provide staff with access to advanced computer tools and sufficient computing power, memory, and disk space to accommodate virtually all requirements for operational and research computing in economics and finance.
Desktop Computing
Every member of the research staff in the Divisions of Research and Statistics, Monetary Affairs, International Finance, and Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Systems has a late model PC desktop machine connected to the research divisions' networks. These networks deliver a full range of network Linux, Windows, and mainframe services. All desktop machines have access to local division intranets, a national Federal Reserve System intranet, and the public Internet. Lotus Notes is the standard e-mail and calendaring tool for the Board, and is also used in the research divisions to distribute and archive documents. The network also provides:
- Secure remote access to Board networks and Internet services while staff members are on travel assignments, telecommuting, or working after hours.
- High-speed network printing to high-capacity HP LaserJet PostScript and HP color laser printers.
- Nightly backups of files stored on network servers.
Software
Office automation software includes Microsoft Office, LaTeX, Scientific Word / Workplace, Lotus Notes, WordPerfect, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Corel Draw.
Mathematical, statistical, and analytical software available either in Linux or in Windows includes Matlab, S-Plus, Mathematica, SAS (including both the SAS/ASSIST interface and SAS/INSIGHT), Stata, EViews, R, Gauss, TSP, RATS, PCGive, Limdep, Modeleasy, X12ARIMA, the NAG subroutine library, and the IMSL subroutine library. Additional Windows software packages are installed on users' desktops on an "as needed" basis.
Available programming languages include C, C++, Perl, Python, PHP, Java, Fortran, TCL/Tk, and Icon, as well as assorted development tools.
Data
Centralized FRB data banks include extensive time series on all major macroeconomic measures of domestic economic activity, many measures of international activity, and considerable disaggregated detail on the banking, consumer finance, and industrial output data collected and edited by the staff of the Federal Reserve System. More than 2 million macroeconomic, banking, industrial, and financial markets data series are maintained in the FAME database system, which provides a unified environment for retrieving, analyzing, and reporting economic data. In addition, economists have access to a wealth of cross-sectional data on banking and mortgage activity as well as labor markets and consumption spending surveys. Finally, many specialized databases are maintained by the staff of the research divisions, ranging from variables defined for several operational macroeconomic models to data on commodities futures, energy products, and housing and real estate markets.