With increasing media interest in the economy, regional manufacturing surveys, such as those conducted by several Federal Reserve Banks, are receiving more attention than they did only a few years ago.

     The value of these surveys is examined in "What Can Regional Manufacturing Surveys Tell Us? Lessons From the Tenth District," by Bill Keeton, assistant vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, and Michael Verba, a research associate at the Bank. The article is featured in the third quarter edition of The Economic Review.

     The article examines the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s manufacturing survey, which began in 1994. The authors find that the Kansas City survey is a valuable source of information about manufacturing within the Tenth Federal Reserve District, especially for variables such as production, orders and capital spending, for which no independent data exist at the regional level. With respect to national manufacturing activity, the authors find that the Kansas City survey provides little direct information beyond what is available in the broader-based Institute of Supply Management survey. However, the authors write that regional surveys such as the Kansas City survey can still play a key role in assessing the national manufacturing sector by providing timely information to policymakers on the breadth of change in activity across regions.

     The article and past editions of The Economic Review are available on the Bank’s Web site at www.kc.frb.org.

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