The National Archives has a branch devoted to the storage of electronic records from many federal entities. Of interest to economists are records from the Bureaus of the Census, Economic Analysis, and Labor Statistics, the Civil Aeronautics Board, Department of Transportation, IRS, SEC, and Social Security Administration. Currently, some 8,000 data files out of more than 18,000 available are listed in a rapidly growing list. Some of the data files are old, while some are relatively recent.
Some entities have only a small selection of data, while for others, the listings are more complete.
One can hope that a less expensive on-line database is not too far in the future. Since a comprehensive list of files here is impossible, the interested researcher should examine them. Much more information about this service can be found in the directory listed below.