Economics Resources

Contents:

Web-based Indexes to journal articles
Minnesota Statistics | United States Statistics | International Statistics
Finance and Banking
Investment
International Trade
General Reference
Books

Students of Economics are interested in books, journal articles and working papers that answer questions or stimulate their thinking about the economy of the United States and the rest of the world. The following lists point out some of the basic resources in the field of economics. Please ask a Reference Librarian for assistance if you need help with any of the resources given here. You can contact us at 651.690-6652 or send us an email.

CSC Economics Department Web site

Web-based Indexes to journal articles and working papers

About off-campus access

Journal of Economic Literature
A comprehensive index of journal articles, books, book reviews, collective volume articles, working papers, and dissertations in economics. Available in three ways:

• Online full text via JSTOR (1969 on - the most recent 3 years are not available)
• Online (citation only, no full text) in the EconLit database in FirstSearch (1983-present; password required)
• In print at the St. Paul Campus Library, in Periodicals (1969-present)

Resources for Economists on the Internet   http://www.rfe.org/

American Economic Association website -  with over 1,600 resources on the internet of interest to economists.

Academic Search Premier
Economics topics are included in this cross-disciplinary database. Access scholarly journals, news magazines, and newspapers - many with full text.

Business Source Premier

Full text for nearly 2,500 scholarly journals, trade journals, general business magazines. coverage includes virtually all subject areas related to business, including international business, country reports economic reports from the EIU, DRI-WEFA, ICON Group and CountryWatch.

CIAO: Columbia International Affairs Online Available on the Web. (http://www.ciao.org)
Contains full-text documents related to the theory and research in international affairs, 1991 to the present. Includes policy briefs and economic indicators from the Conference Board, the OECD, and the U.S. Government. Full-text articles of interest to economists can be found on this database. Examples include Caucasian Regional Studies, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Middle Eastern Review of International Affairs, OECD Observer, and Social Sciences.

LexisNexis Academic Available on the Web.
Covers general news, medical, legal, business, arts and sports, foreign language newspapers. Includes New York Times, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press in full text. Wall Street Journal citations and abstracts are on LexisNexis, BUT the Wall St. Journal Full text is accessible only using the Wall Street Journal site listed below.

PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) Available through CSA
PAIS International (Public Affairs Information Service) is a database of international public policy and social issues literature covering issues and actions which affect world communities, countries, and governments. Available on FirstSearch.

Wall Street Journal Available on the Web.
Online, Full text is available through the ProQuest Newspapers database.

Minnesota Statistics

Minnesota State Demographic Center   http://www.demography.state.mn.us/

Minnesota Department of Trade and Development http://www.deed.state.mn.us/facts/index.htm
Minnesota's database of economic and demographic data.

Minnesota - Export & International Trade Statistics   http://www.exportminnesota.com/itradestats.htm

United States Statistics

Web sites

GPO Access
Overall web access to federal government information

American Factfinder http://factfinder.census.gov/
Census Bureau. 2000 Census data.

Budget of the United States http://www.access.gpo.gov/usbudget/

Bureau of Economic Analysis http://www.bea.gov/
One of the Commerce Department's statistical agencies - national, regional, industry and international data.

Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/econ/www/index.html
Latest national and subnational data for major economic programs like the Economic Census and County Business Patterns, e.g. economic indicators.

2002 Economic Census http://www.census.gov/econ/census02/
Profiles the U.S. economy every five years.

County and City Data Books http://fisher.lib.Virginia.EDU/ccdb/
Web access to the 1994, 1998, and 2000 County and City Data Books (also in print in the Reference collection) Includes data on states, counties, cities and places in the U.S.

CPI
http://minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/#calc
How the CPI is calculated. CPI and inflation rates 1913- .
http://stats.bls.gov/cpihome.htm The Bureau of Labor Statistics' CPI for the U.S. city average and Minneapolis-St. Paul can be found here.

Economic Report of the President http://www.access.gpo.gov/eop/
Also (Reference HC106.6 .A272 2002) Annual report of the Council of Economic Advisors assessing the state of the United States' economy

Economics Statistics Briefing Room http://www.whitehouse.gov/fsbr/esbr.html

Access to federal economic indicators: employment, income, international, money, output,     prices, production and transportation.

Inflation Calculators http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/bu2/inflate.html
Consumer Price Index (CPI), Employment cost Index (ECI), GDP Deflator Calculator, International Price Index (IPI), Producer Price Index (PPI) are all accessible on this site.

Statistical Abstract of the U.S. (Latest print copy at the Reference Desk HA 202)
Internet site: http://www.census.gov/compendia/stab/
Well arranged, easy-to-read tables summarizing international financial statistics, for example, central bank discount rates, exchange rates, external public debt by country, etc.

Statistics International

Web sites
(also see International Trade for additional Web sites)

OFFSTATS: Official Statistics on the Web
Excellent site with links to many country Web sites

http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/stats/offstats/

Country Studies
Each country study provides economic, political, historical and social information on a country (published by Library of Congress in a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Army from 1986-1998). The Library does own print copies housed in the circulating collection. On CLICNET do a title search for the name of the country and "country study", e.g. India Country Study (DS407 .I4465 1996)  http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html

Portals to the World 

Library of congress website with business, economics, history for over 140 countries.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html

Background Notes
U. S. Department of State updates and revises based on reports received from regional bureaus. Information on countries and regions of the world can be found. Gives an overview of the economics of the country, but also history, people, politics, foreign relations, U.S. relations, and travel and business.  http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn

Country Briefings
The Economist provides news, country profiles, forecasts, statistics for countries.

http://www.economist.com/countries/

Gini Coefficient (measure of world income inequalities) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient
Gini coefficient is a measure showing the degree of inequality in a frequency distribution; i.e. it is a way of characterizing inequality.

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Statistics Division
http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/
Global data - e.g. Millennium Indicators Database lists 48 social and economic indicators by country and years since 1985.

Reference Books

Demographic Yearbook (Reference HA17 .D45 yr.)
United Nations annual collection of demographic statistics.

A Dictionary of Economics (via Oxford Reference Online)
Provides definitions for thousands of economic terms, covering all aspects of economic theory, from microeconomics to public finance and international trade. Also defines mathematical and statistical terms widely used in economics.

Economic Indicators  (Reference HC 59.3 .E26 2004)

Data required for long term economic projections to assess long-term risk and economic projections. .

The Europa World Yearbook (Reference JN1 .E85 yr.)
The Europa Yearbook and the Statesman's Yearbook are excellent places to start to gather data and information on countries of the world

Nations of the World  (Reference HF 1010 .N37 2004)

Political, economic & business handbook with individual country and regional profiles. Includes Business directory and websites.

South America, Central America, and the Caribbean (Reference F1401 .S68)

Europa publication. Survey of political and economic life, and issues of regional significance, e.g. trade agreements.

The Statesman's Year-Book (Reference JA 51.S7 1997/98)
Basic data on the economy, energy & natural resources, industry, foreign economic relations, etc. for individual countries and international organizations.

World Development Report 2005  (REference HC 59.7 .W59 2005)

Investment climate study based on data from 53 developing countries.

Banking, Finance, Monetary Policy

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank http://www.federalreserve.gov
The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States. The Fed oversees the nation's monetary policy, banking institutions, etc.

Currency Converter http://www.xe.com/ucc/
Interactive foreign exchange currency rate calculations

Exchange Rates http://pacific.commerce.ubc.ca/xr
Provides access to current and historic daily exchange rates.

FDIC http://www.fdic.gov
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was created in congress to maintain stability in the banking industry. Included at this site are statistics on banking, banking quarterly profile, consumer information, etc.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis http://minneapolisfed.org
Contains information on interest and exchange rates charts, news releases, economic research publications, banking and regulatory information.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis http://research.stlouisfed.org
FRED database of economic data e.g. business/fiscal, CPI, employment & population, balance of payments, trade data, PPI, banking, etc.

Central Banks on the web http://www.bis.org/cbanks.htm
Maintained by the Bank for international settlements- provides links to Web sites for central banks, e.g. Albania

International Trade  (See International Trade and Business course guide also)

Web sites

A Basic Guide to Exporting    http://www.unzco.com/basicguide/

Joint publication of the Dept. of Commerce and Unz & Co. Practical guide to exporting.

Country Commercial Guides http://www.export.gov/
Country commercial Guides are prepared annually by U.S. Embassies. These reports provide a comprehensive look at commercial environments using economic, political and market analysis.

United States International Trade Statistics http://www.census.gov/ftp/pub/foreign-trade/www
Produced by the Census Bureau, this site provides links to historical trade data, country by commodity data and international trade statistics.

GlobalEDGE http://globaledge.msu.edu/ibrd/ibrd.asp
Michigan State University site with current information on business climate, news, history, political structure, economic landscape, and relevant statistical data for 196 countries. You can compare and rank countries using statistical indicators.

International Monetary Fund     http://www.imf.org

Global Finance information. Country information - http://www.imf.org/external/country/index.htm#A

International Economic Trends. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/iet/

U.S. Bureau of Industry & Security    http://www.bis.doc.gov/

Export Administration Regulations

World Bank http://www.worldbank.org
Country and Region information, data, activities of the World Bank and programs. Some pdf files, some text provided. Includes newsletters, different choices for each regional survey. For example, some data such as debt, trade, found for Countries and Regions - search Finance and banking. Hot links to other international monetary organizations, e.g. IMF, Inter-American Development Bank, and Asian Development Bank (At the bottom right hand side of page for "About the World Bank Group".

WTO/GATT Research http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/shortguideto.html
An authoritative guide to print, microfiche, and electronic resources on the World Trade Organization and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

International Monetary Fund http://www.imf.org
Has FAQ section, Fact sheets. Fact Sheets in "About the IMF' links you to reports

Penn World Tables http://datacentre.chass.utoronto.ca
Data from 152 countries and 29 subjects - Search Countries by Regions (left hand side of page)

Web Resources for International Trade http://www.fita.org/webindex/index.html
Federation of International Trade Associations. Links to international trade/Import-Export web sites.

Books

Books in CLICNET, the Library's online catalog, are assigned subjects based on the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). If you are having trouble, you may wish to consult LCSH for subject headings appropriate to your topic. The books are located behind the Reference Desk. E-books in NetLibrary will be useful in your research.

Browsing shelf areas relevant to your topic can be a useful strategy. Books in the Reference and circulating collections are shelved in general subject categories according to the Library of Congress classification system. Below is a brief listing of some of the shelf locations in the field of economics.

HA Statistics
HB Economics theory; includes price, wealth, capital, profit, consumption, business cycles
HC Economic history and conditions; by region and country
HD Economic history and conditions; production, agriculture, industry, labor
HE Transportation and communications; railways, communications, air transportation
HF Commerce; boards of trade, tariffs

      HF 1371 - International Trade
HG Finance; money, banking, credit, stocks, investment
HJ Public Finance