a) One paragraph describing the dataset and where you found it (i.e., the source with
I have two datasets. The first is from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS data is the unemployment rate each month for every U.S. state from January 1976 through August 2010. The second dataset is from the U.S. Census Bureau, this data is on annual state expenditures broken down by category from 1992 through 2008. I am still working to obtain expenditure data from years prior to 1992.
BLS data: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/dsrv?la
U.S. Census Bureau Data: http://www.census.gov/govs/estimate/historical_data.html
b) One paragraph outlining 1-2 research questions that you plan to address with you
SPSS analysis
With state governments facing declining revenue and massive ongoing budget deficits, state governments have received tremendous pressure to meet public needs with fewer resources. Many states have bridged budget deficits by laying off state employees and slashing expenditures in a number of essential public services.
My research will focus on states that weathered past recessions (1982-83, 1991, 2001-02) better than other states and determine if some of their success can be correlated with expenditures in a particular category. Perhaps transportation infrastructure spending, or expenditures on universities aided states in overcoming challenging economic times.
c) One paragraph that presents some questions that you have about your topic that
One piece of data I would like to obtain beyond what I currently possess is data on state workforce size for all 50 states for the last 35 years. While I’m comfortable with my current data, I would welcome any insights into obtaining this dataset.
