The Boston Research Data Center (BRDC) is located at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and provides qualified researchers in the New England area the opportunity to perform statistical analysis using non-public federal data. Opened in 1994 in the Census Bureau’s Boston Regional Office, the BRDC was the first remote Research Data Center. It was moved to NBER in 2002 and has steadily grown, with over 150 active local investigators today, many of them collaborating with researchers in the other Research Data Centers across the country.

BRDC research projects span a wide variety of important research topics. Some recent examples include R&D, innovation, reallocation and growth, wage dispersion, earnings dynamics, entrepreneurship, cluster composition of regions, delegation within firms, the impact of science and engineering workers, trade shocks and manufacturing employment, factoryless goods producers, importer heterogeneity, pollution abatement, productivity and labor demand, unemployment and disability insurance, economic measurement, survey non-response and data quality.

Executive Director

Wayne Gray, Ph.D.

Dr. Gray is a Professor in the Department of Economics at Clark University, an NBER Research Associate and Executive Director of the Boston Research Data Center.

Contact Information

Shital Sharma, Ph.D., Co-Administrator
Email Shital Sharma

Sari Kerr, Ph.D., Co-Administrator
Email Sari Kerr

Boston Research Data Center
National Bureau of Economic Research
1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138

617-613-1215

Partner Institution

The operation of each Federal Statistical Research Data Center (RDC) is supported by both the Census Bureau and RDC partner institutions. Some RDC partner institutions form consortiums to share the operational costs of the RDC and may waive user fees for their affiliates. Several RDCs have built branch locations to reduce the cost of researchers commuting to the core location while still maintaining the identical stringent information technology and physical security requirements.

National Bureau of Economic Research

Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works.