Economic Research Agent PR

[enriquekalven]

🏛️ PR Scope: Overview of the Economic Research Agent (ERA)

The Economic Research Agent (ERA) is an enterprise-grade, Multi-Source Intelligence Consultant designed for automated regional economic analysis, labor market evaluation, and cross-industry site selection (Data Centers, Corporate HQs, Manufacturing Hubs).

Built on the Vertex AI Agent Engine (ADK 2.1+), it completely replaces static knowledge Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) with 100% Live-API Grounding using real-time federal and public endpoints.

---

🛡️ Core Capabilities & Grounded APIs

The ERA orchestrates live calls to over 12+ major public domains & endpoints, synthesizing data into high-fidelity, McKinsey-style strategic briefs:

| Domain | What the Agent Can Do | Live Providers | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | **📈 Macroeconomics** | Analyze GDP trends, inflation, and structural momentum. | St. Louis Fed (FRED), BEA | | **💼 Labor Market** | Fetch median hourly wages, compute labor force participation, and union densities. | BLS (Labor Statistics) | | **🏗️ Real Estate & HUD** | Determine housing affordability, Fair Market Rents (FMR), and cost of living. | HUD User, US Census | | **💡 Operational OPEX** | Benchmark industrial electricity rates, state tax profiles, and regional trade flows. | EIA (Energy Administration), Tax Foundation | | **⚖️ Political Risk** | Measure lobbying exposure, campaign finance trends, and regulatory changes. | OpenFEC, Federal Register |

---

💬 Sample Strategic Scenarios

The agent excels at Comparative Multi-Variable Questioning:

• "Compare Austin vs. Raleigh for a new Fintech HQ. Correlate local electric costs, state tax phasedowns, and CS talent graduation rates."
• "Is Phoenix a good hub for a semiconductor plant given its trade flow profile and recent Federal Register notices?"
• "Create a 360-degree Site Selection Matrix for a 500-person service center in Dallas vs. Nashville."

---

🎯 Key Design Choices

1. Zero Hallucination Tolerance: All numerical outputs are fetched live using Python tool bindings to the APIs. If the API is down, the agent admits it rather than guessing.
2. Stateless Enterprise Privacy: No local databases are used. Data is processed pure-in-memory and streamed securely to the user.
3. Modern ADK Architecture: Uses native AdkApp and Google Gemini models for clean, lightning-fast planning without bloated graphs!

[google-cla]

Thanks for your pull request! It looks like this may be your first contribution to a Google open source project. Before we can look at your pull request, you'll need to sign a Contributor License Agreement (CLA).

View this failed invocation of the CLA check for more information.

For the most up to date status, view the checks section at the bottom of the pull request.