BEA Data Browsing

Discussion

The short version: BEA is deprecating browseable data tables. When there is nothing there to dz-Dot, use this instead!

Starting in 2019, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis began a migration away from browseable public tables to Query-only access. When converted, this means that there is no longer human-readable data at a fixed URL, and therefore dataZoa cannot use its typical dz-Dot method for drag-and-drop data access to the data that was once served served via URLs. Essentially, the traditional human pathways to some BEA data no longer exist. There are human-oriented search tools at the BEA that will use their API to navigate and find data values for you, but they do not provide the locations of the values such that you can revisit the same data.

To keep this valuable information available and current in dataZoa, use this tool at dataZoa.com. This lets you browse BEA data and then commit it (and its location!) to your dataZoa account so that it can stay up to date and grow over time, in the manner of all other dataZoa sources.

Select Parameters to Browse Data section

In this section you are drilling down to data of interest by gradually tightening specifications until a single, repeatable fact is resolved. The selection fields generally proceed from top to bottom. (However, the BEA is not perfectly consistent in this and may ask questions that cannot be answered until lower selections are made). As you make selections, the page interacts with the BEA every step of the way to determine what the choices should be given your current selections. The choices and also the types of choices are very much path-dependent.

The first few choices are similar in structure:

• Dataset Name offers a list of BEA Datasets, documented here. Note that dataZoa generally covers datasets as any part becomes available, an coverage within a dataset may be only partial.
• TableName shows the BEA Tables in the Dataset.
  Sometime, the BEA will require a TableID as well. As far as has been observed, this is identical with TableName.

Another very common choice available is Frequency, often Quarterly or Annual

The final very common selection is for Geographic scope and location, typically labelled GeoFips by the BEA. Again, as you make Geography selections, the page may interact with the BEA to adjust appropriate choices.

At the bottom of the Parameters Section there is a display of the actual BEA API call being built, for handy reference.

Data Comparison Columns section

When all of parameters are selected, you do a trial data fetch and examine the results. You can tweak parameters if needed and re-fetch. When you are satisfied that the trial fetch is right for the data you seek, you can Send the Series to dataZoa.

The two data comparison columns show:

• A Test fetch from the BEA using the parameters. Note that the results shown are lightly processed for readability. To see the exact information returned from the BEA API, you can copy and paste the underlying "API Calls" from the top section right into another browser window.
• A dataZoa Fetch with formal processing of titles, NA handling, footnotes, etc. When satisfied, Send this Series to dataZoa!

A Special note for dataZoa API users

If you routinely use the dataZoa API for automated data collection and maintenance, the "GeoFips" shown in the upper section of this page can be a key time saver, as a model for iterating over various counties, MSAs, etc.!