UWCC
Continues Census Bureau Research with NCFC Gift
Research on the performance and benefits of the cooperative business
model is hampered by the lack of comprehensive, longitudinal data resources. The Center has been at the forefront of
developing this type of data resource through the Census Bureau, but it can be
a slow, nuts-and-bolts process.
After a multi-year clearance process, Center staff can now begin to examine
the data resources gathered through the Census Bureau’s National Business
Survey. However, work with the data can
only take place in the Bureau's remote Research Data Center (RDC) in Chicago. Several universities have worked with the Census Bureau
to establish RDC's on their own campuses, making data access more convenient for
researchers.
The Center is leading an effort to establish an RDC on the
UW-Madison campus, and other colleges and departments have expressed interest
in participating. Funding for this
effort has been seeded with a generous $15,000 gift from the National Council
for Farmer Cooperatives, and it is expected that this donation will add to the
momentum for bringing this research resource to campus. The data that the Center will be analyzing includes enterprise and
establishment-level tax data for all firms in the U.S. economy. Among
other projects, the research team will evaluate the feasibility of
reporting on cooperatives by the Census Bureau so that cooperative
economic activity may be reported annually and tracked over time.
| 