This UK archive, funded by the University of Essex and the Economic and Social Research Council, is the largest such archive in the United Kingdom. It holds nearly 4,000 social science computer datasets, both historical and contemporary, that are in some way related to the U.K. (about the U.K., conducted by U.K. investigators, or of interest to U.K. users). For economists, datasets of particular interest include the CSO Macroeconomic Databank, the Family Expenditure Survey, and the Labour Force Survey. In addition, some of datasets contain multi-country surveys, so other countries are frequently included. Thus, this archive is of interest even to non-U.K. economists. Since the datasets are held under agreement with the depositors, one must contact the archive for information on how to obtain the data, some of which is available online (other formats include CD-ROMs and tapes, diskette, and DAT)
To search ESRC's holdings, one can easily search their database, BIRON, via telnet. If an item of interest is found, further information on how to obtain the data can be found via email.
telnet://biron:norib@biron.essex.ac.uk
Bill Goffe <bgoffe@whale.st.usm.edu>