Center for Data Analysis

About the Heritage Center for Data Analysis

The CDA has created one of the largest collections of privately held public policy databases in the United States, which it employs to analyze policy changes ranging from taxes to welfare. The Center constructs these databases largely from publicly available federal data on important economic, social, and cultural aspects of American life. These databases frequently are used to estimate the likely effects of policy changes on such key dimensions of everyday life as marriage rates, income growth, educational attainment, and retirement decisions.

Center economists use specially developed models of the federal tax system, Social Security, health care, and a wide range of other major programs to estimate how large and small policy changes will affect the federal budget, the pocketbooks of ordinary Americans, and behavioral changes of individuals. The Center shares its analysis of proposed legislation with policymakers in and out of government, members of Congress and their staffs, officials within the executive branch, and the public policy community.

The CDA specializes in estimating the economic effects of policy changes through an integrated set of econometric models developed by the Center and leading economic consulting companies and maintained by the CDA. For example, Heritage analysts use the Global Insight U.S. Macroeconomic Model, one of the major models used by leading government agencies, to gauge a policy’s effects on the national economy and on households. The Center traces these national effects to individual businesses, the states, and congressional districts with special models developed by the Center and with other publicly available federal databases.