Cornell FSRDC celebrates 20 years of advancing research

For 20 years, researchers have used Cornell University's Federal Statistical Research Data Center(FSRDC) to analyze restricted federal data and generate insights that shape public policy and strengthen the economy. Faculty and students use the secure on-campus lab to study everything from access to childcare and poverty reduction to workforce dynamics and business investment - work that would be impossible without the microdata accessed through the FSRDC.

"The Cornell FSRDC has been essential to my and my students' research," said Chris Forman, the Peter and Stephanie Nolan Professor of Strategy and Business Economics in the SC Johnson College of Business. "Access to microdata in the FSRDC is enabling us to examine how firms' information technology investments affect worker inflows and outflows, enabling us to deepen understanding of the relationship between IT investments and firm employment."

Pauline Leung, associate professor of economics and public policy, noted that "it would not be possible to comprehensively study how disadvantaged populations transition in and out of the social safety net without the administrative data available at the FSRDC."

Cornell's FSRDC opened in 2005 under the former Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research (CISER). The CISER director at that time, John M. Abowd- now Edmund Ezra Day Professor Emeritus of Economics, Statistics and Data Science and former chief scientist at the U.S. Census Bureau - secured a $2.9 million NSF Information Technology Research grant to expand the types of data to be made available and to ensure that the reprocessed data are valid. The center began in an adapted Pine Tree Road facility, just outside of the main campus, once occupied by prizewinning bulls but quickly took on its new life supporting world-class research.

Abowd's pioneering work with colleagues and graduate students led to the development of the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) data infrastructure. In their 2004 American Economic Review article, Abowd, along with colleagues John Haltiwanger and Julia Lane, wrote, "the development of a database infrastructure that captures the complex interactions among households and businesses at the microeconomic level and characterizes the dynamics of the modern economy is critical for the social sciences." A chapter in the 2022 Center for Economic Studies Research Reportcommemorated the 25th anniversary of the LEHD by stating, "the LEHD program in the Center for Economic Studies has led the way in the development of statistical data products derived from administrative records."

Early on, the FSRDC's impact was clear. Among the first to use the facility was Richard Burkhauser, now the Emeritus Sarah Gibson Blanding Professor of Public Policy, whose groundbreaking research on income inequality using the internal version of the Current Population Survey was later cited by the Census Bureau as a prime example of the value of the FSRDC for advancing both academic and policy-relevant research.

Building on this early momentum, the center has continued to evolve as part of Cornell's broader research infrastructure. Since 2021, the FSRDC, has been housed within the Cornell Center for Social Sciences(CCSS), further integrating social science data resources across campus. Today, Cornell's FSRDC is one of 37 research data centers operated by the U.S. Census Bureau, giving researchers in a rural setting the same secure access to nonpublic Census Bureau and partner-agency data typically only available in major metropolitan areas.

Under the current leadership of Zhuan Pei, Cornell FSRDC executive director and associate professor of economics and public policy, and support from Nichole Szembrot, FSRDC administrator, the center currently supports 56 projects in various stages involving 73 faculty members and students at Cornell and elsewhere.

"It is a privilege to have an FSRDC at Cornell. It supports important research and is a key asset for student and faculty recruiting," said Pei. "We have an outstanding administrator in Nichole Szembrot, who provides exceptional support to faculty and students as they develop their FSRDC projects. It warms my heart that the leadership at CCSS and Cornell Research & Innovation recognizes the value of the Cornell FSRDC and has given its full support."

On Sept. 25 and 26, Cornell hosted the 2025 Federal Statistical Research Data Center Annual Business Meeting and Research Conferenceon Cornell's campus. The first day included meetings between Census Bureau staff, executive directors from FSRDCs around the country, and federal agency partners. Peter Enns, Robert S. Harrison Director of CCSS and professor of government and professor of public policy, and Gary Koretzky, interim vice provost for research at Cornell, welcomed business meeting attendees; Nate Ramsey, census director of the FSRDC program, Ron Jarmin, deputy director of the Census Bureau, and Mark Calabria, chief statistician of the United States provided opening remarks. More than 100 researchers attended the daylong research conference on the second day, which featured concurrent paper sessions and a keynote by Abowd on the benefits the FSRDC system has provided to government and society.

The 2025 conference was co-sponsored by the Cornell Center for Social Sciences, the Department of Economicsand the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy.

To learn more about research opportunities at the Cornell FSRDC visit their website.

Megan Pillar is the communications specialist for societal systems in Cornell Research & Innovation.