Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President and CEO Patrick T. Harker addressed researchers and economists on the significance of using both historical and current data to comprehend today’s economy. Harker introduced the Philadelphia Fed’s Center for the Restoration of Economic Data (CREED), which offers digitized versions of previously inaccessible historical data and innovative methods for timely economic and policy-relevant research.
“What we need more of right now is this proper historic economic perspective. And this is where the CREED effort will really shine,” Harker stated in a prepared speech at the From Rasters to Rows: New Methods and Applications in Automated Data Extraction conference hosted by the Philadelphia Fed. “Simply put, the promise of CREED is to use the technology of today to unlock the past — an oftentimes forgotten past.”
CREED transforms information from old books, maps, and other analog formats into ready-to-use, publicly available digital data using advanced machine learning techniques and research expertise from the Philadelphia Fed’s Consumer Finance Institute and Research Department. CREED’s current collection focuses on aspects of the housing market:
– The Historical Housing Prices Project provides new data on housing prices for sale and rent over the 20th century using real estate sections from historical newspapers in 30 major cities.
– The Racial Covenants interactive map shows language added to deeds that prevented non-Whites from buying or renting property in Philadelphia.
CREED plans to expand its digitization efforts to include analog sources that can illuminate various topics such as business formation and intergenerational wealth transmission.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia helps formulate and implement monetary policy; supervises state member banks, bank holding companies, and savings and loan holding companies; and provides financial services to depository institutions and the federal government. It is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks that, together with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia serves eastern and central Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware.
