The Moving to Opportunity (MTO) dataset, which has become a valuable resource for studying the consequences of neighborhood poverty, resulted from a unique random assignment research effort sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The data allow researchers to investigate the impacts of poverty for key outcomes including employment, income, and educational attainment. This demonstration was designed to help very low–income families with children living in public housing or Section 8 project–based housing in extremely poor neighborhoods relocate to "opportunity neighborhoods" for greater self-sufficiency and improved individual and family well-being.

The MTO demonstration ran in five large cities—Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York—between September 1994 and August 1998. The restricted-access version of the MTO dataset is housed in the U.S. Census Bureau under a data-sharing agreement with HUD and can be accessed through the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers. MTO data can be linked to Census Bureau data such as the American Community Survey.

Several projects are using MTO and Census data, including a study of the long-term effects of housing mobility on civic and political participation (David Knight, Columbia University), which examines the impact of housing mobility on electoral participation. Read more about the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “Residential Mobility and Persistently Depressed Voting Among Disadvantaged Adults in a Large Housing Experiment.” Another project analyzes the influence of a housing voucher experiment and neighborhood context on mortality, fertility, housing, family formation, and demographic outcomes after 30 years (Theresa Osypuk, University of Minnesota). A recent paper, “Does Poor Health Influence Residential Selection? Understanding Mobility among Low-Income Housing Voucher Recipients in the Moving to Opportunity Study,” examined the links between health and housing mobility.

For more information on requesting the MTO data, visit ResearchDataGov.org.

A wide range of researchers, analysts, and other professionals use NASS data to answer challenging questions on such topics as crop management, chemical pesticides, land usage, and veterinary science. They also use NASS data to align their work with industry needs, so they can advance their individual fields of study in meaningful ways. Many researchers use NASS data to augment their own data collection efforts, to apply for grants, and to establish education and extension programs that are appropriate for the needs and opportunities revealed by the data. Their research can result in producer benefits such as improved crop yields, new technologies, and establishment of new programs.

To help answer these questions, the SAP Data Catalog includes nearly 20 NASS data assets available for research, such as the Census of Agriculture (COA), the Agricultural Resource Management Survey, and many COA special studies such as the Irrigation and Water Management Survey. NASS began releasing 2022 COA products on February 13, 2024, and is excited to announce that the restricted microdata will be added to the SAP Data Catalog in August 2024. The COA is a comprehensive summary of agricultural activity for the United States and for each state and county. It includes the number of farms by size and type, inventory and values for crops and livestock, producer characteristics, and much more. Because of the size and scope of this dataset, applicants are required to select from a variable list as part of the SAP application.

NASS reviews SAP applications year-round. Applications for NASS-owned datasets will have a determination returned within 12 weeks. Some datasets are jointly owned by NASS and another USDA statistical agency or unit, and a determination for applications involving these datasets will be returned within 24 weeks.

Currently, researchers are using datasets available in the SAP to evaluate a variety of interesting topics, such as the impact of climate and the environment on agriculture, the vital economic role of various agricultural industry sectors, and best practices for producers; and promote their adoption. One specific project focuses on how water delivery organizations and individual producers adapt to water scarcity, which poses a threat to the resilience of many sectors of the U.S. economy, including agriculture.

For years, NASS has made restricted microdata available to researchers, but the SAP has formalized and added transparency to the process. For additional information about access to NASS’s restricted microdata, visit the NASS restricted microdata access website and review the Data Lab Handbook and SAP Application Guidelines.

The IRS Statistics of Income program’s (SOI) application window is now closed. Details about future application windows for IRS data from SOI can be found in each dataset's metadata on the SAP portal or on SOI’s Joint Statistical Research Program website.

For more information on SOI’s products and programs, please visit irs.gov/statistics or e-mail our Statistical Information Services Office at SIS@irs.gov.