Excel Add-ins
Add-ins are special files that provide additional functionality. After downloading an add-in file, the Add-ins Manager must be used to install it. Add-ins files have extension .xla or .xlam (for Excel 2007 and newer).
Currently Available:
Econ Chart Enhancer
Description and Installation
The Econ Chart Enhancer add-in has options for various tweaks to an existing chart, including adding shaded bars (for recessions), using a natural log scale, and fitting an exponential growth curve. While a knowledgeable Excel user could do these things on her own, this add-in saves a lot of tedious work.
The Econ Chart Enhancer add-in was last updated in June 2015. If you want to update it, please email me.
Click here to see a short video on how to to install it (after clicking above to download it).If you have any trouble, visit the Help page.
Scenario Comparative Statics
Description and Use
The Scenario Comparative Statics add-in creates scenarios for user-specified values of an exogenous variable and the corresponding solutions, displaying the results in a new sheet. It works with sheets that have analytical, reduced-form solutions entered as formulas for endogenous variables or using Excel's Solver to find the solution for each given value of the exogenous variable.
If you do not know how to install an add-in, view the video above.
Click here to see a short video on how to use the Scenario Comparative Statics add-in.Here is the Excel workbook used in the screencast (without the scenarios): ScenCSVideo.xlsx.
FRED Excel Add-in
This add-in is freely available and produced by the St. Louis Fed as a convenient interface for accessing Fed data directly from Excel. There are almost a million (and growing) US and international time series from various sources (e.g., BEA, BLS, Census, and OECD). Instructions to get the latest version of the add-in are here:
research.stlouisfed.org/fred-addin
The FRED Excel add-in has been updated and is now available through the App Store.FRED also has apps for phones and tablets. (Brilliant!)
LEGACY FRED Excel Add-in
If you want the older, better (crazy, I know) version, click on the link below to download an October 2, 2020 version of FRED.xlam that is installed with the Add-in Manager:For printed documentation for this LEGACY FRED version (including a quick start guide), see research.stlouisfed.org/fred-addin/FRED_PC_Users_Guide.pdf.
Housing.xls is an Excel workbook that shows how to use the FRED add-in.
Click here to see a screencast on how to use the FRED Excel add-in (also included in the Excel workbook).