obsessively-detailed instructions to analyze publicly-available survey data with free tools – the r language, the survey package, and (for big data) sqlsurvey + monetdb.
governments spend billions of dollars each year surveying their populations. if you have a computer and some energy, you should be able to unlock it for free, with transparent, open-source software, using reproducible techniques. we’re in a golden era of public government data, but almost nobody knows how to mine it with technology designed for this millennium. i can change that, so i’m gonna. help. use it.
the computer code for each survey data set consists of three core components:
current analysis examples
- fully-commented, easy-to-modify examples of how to load, clean, configure, and analyze the most current data sets available.
massive ftp download automation
- no-changes-necessary programs to download every microdata file from every survey year as an r data file onto your local disk.
replication scripts
- match published numbers exactly to show that r produces the same results as other statistical languages. these are your rosetta stones, so you know the syntax has been translated into r properly.
want a more gentle introduction? read this flowchart, grab some popcorn, watch me talk at the dc r users group.
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endorsements, citations, links, words on the street:
- the consumer expenditure survey microdata page, bureau of labor statistics
- the survey of consumer finances microdata page, federal reserve
- the pesquisa nacional por amostra de domicilios – continua page, brazilian census bureau
- the pesquisa nacional por amostra de domicilios page, brazilian census bureau
- the pesquisa de orcamentos familiares microdata page, brazilian census bureau
- the pesquisa mensal de emprego page, brazilian census bureau
- the censo demografico 2010 and 2000 pages, brazilian census bureau
- the resources to help you learn and use r page, ucla institute for digital research …read more
Source:: r-bloggers.com