The Michigan Census Research Data Center (MCRDC) is a joint project of the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the University of Michigan to enable qualified confidentiality-abiding researchers with approved projects to access confidential, unpublished Census Bureau data via Title 13, sec. 9 U.S.C.. The Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies has developed and put into practice the concept of Research Data Centers (RDCs). The RDCs provide a secure Census Bureau environment where researchers may have limited access to confidential economic and demographic microdata, with appropriate safeguards to protect data confidentiality. This controlled environment ensures that the Census Bureau’s standards for ensuring the confidentiality of data by its census and survey respondents are rigorously maintained. The ability to analyze the data on individuals, households, establishments, and firms has enormous scientific benefits. These include the ability to make full use of the information collected by government agencies; to analyze the behavior of individuals and firms taking into account the heterogeneity of behavior and characteristics; and to combine sources of data at the individual level to study relationships obscured by more aggregate data.
For more information please contact: George Kaplan.