Economics 110: Principles of Microeconomics
(Fall 2009)

The course guide highlights some of the major resources you can use in your policy memo assignment.  For further assistance, stop by the Research Help Desk, or schedule a research appointment with one of the librarians leading the ECON 110 library sessions:







Start Here:

  • Expanded Academic Index indexes the magazines and journals most likely to be found in a college library; many references contain the full-text of the article or a link to full-text.

    Search Tips: Use the "Advanced Search" mode to better control and manipulate your searches. Remember you are searching for concepts, so you need to be creative in your search terms and think about as many words describing a concept as you can; use "or" to include all terms containing the same concept. For example, if you are looking for legislation, your search terms might include "law", "legislation", and possibly even "regulations". Magazines/journals of particular interest would include: Economist, Journal of Economic Perspectives.

  • ProQuest National Newspapers (Current News) provides access to the major newspapers in the United States. Use them to find news articles and opinion/editorial pieces.  ProQuest International Newsstand
    provides similar access to non-US newspapers and can provide a more international view of US policies.

  • Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe - News Provides access to major U.S., regional, and international newspapers. Both Lexis Nexis and ProQuest cover newspapers and have full-text. However, ProQuest provides more cover-to-cover coverage of news stories than does Lexis Nexis.

  • PAIS International (1915-Present) - An index of articles, books, websites and government documents that cover global public policy, social issues and the social sciences.

Environmental Issues:

  • Environment Abstracts (1975-Present) - Environment Abstracts indexes more than 950 journals and other scientific and scholarly material published in the U.S. and abroad, encompassing all aspects of the impact of people and technology on the environment. As of 1994, the database also provides expanded coverage of energy-related issues.

Government Information Resources:

  • Office of Management and Budget (OMB) provides an overview and cost estimates for the  president's budget, programs, and policies.

  • Congressional Publications Select CRS reports in the "Search Within" section. CRS Reports are prepared by the Congressional Research Office.  These analyses of major policy initiatives will examine the costs and associated implications of proposed legislation.  They tend to provide a balanced view of major issues.

  • Statistical Universe (1973/1983 - present) - A multidisciplinary index to statistics covering a wide range of topics.

  • Statistical Abstract of the United States (1878 - present) - Abstract of statistics compiled by federal agencies. Statistical Abstract of the United States is a good place to start to find U.S. statistics.

  • FEDSTATS (Coverage Varies) - Provides access to statistical sites for more than 70 federal agencies. Excellent jumping off point for federal and state data.

  • The Presidential briefing room provides quick access to speeches, policy briefs and news releases by the Obama administration.
  • Beige Book provides quarterly and annual summaries of economic conditions for each of the Federal Reserve Districts. Statistics are embedded in summaries.

Industry and Labor:

  • General BusinessFile ASAP is the best resource for finding general business information and for getting the fulltext of trade and industry publications. Topics that have a business or labor component can be researched here.

  • Bureau of Labor Statistics offers employment statistics, productivity and technology, wages, consumer prices, US economy at a glance, etc. Years and geographic regions can be manipulated; time series can be downloaded in CSV or Tab Delimited formats.

Think tanks:

Consider the biases that think tanks may be bringing to the discussion.  Read their about us section, look at the major contributors and the staff.  Use evaluative sites to better understand the point of view your think tank may have.  Ideally, contrast policy statements from two think tanks with vastly different perspectives on the issue. 

Finding Think Tanks:

  • Harvard Kennedy's School Think Tank Directory provides links to major US think tanks and a Google custom search engine that searches just the websites of these think tanks. It is a good place to find out which think tanks may be most appropriate for your topic.

Some Influential and Well-Known Think Tanks:

  • The Economic Policy Institute, is a resource that students in Economics should know about. It contains publications written by notable economists. Those publications marked "Read This Title Online" are available online. Other publications are for sale only.

  • Center for Budget and Priorities provides a progressive view on public policy. According to their website, CBP "is one of the nation's premier policy organizations working at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals." Their site provides online access to position papers, factsheets, and more in-depth policy analyses.

  • The Brookings Institution is one of the best known progressive institutes. Many of their working papers are available free online. The Brookings Institute also publishes books that analyze public policy. The library purchases a number of these. Check FRANCIS if you are interested in a particular book you find on the Brookings Website.

  • American Enterprise Institute publishes position papers and research reports on its Website. According to their website, AEI " is dedicated to preserving and strengthening the foundations of freedom--limited government, private enterprise, vital cultural and political institutions, and a strong foreign policy and national defense--through scholarly research, open debate, and publications."

  • The Cato Institute provides a libertarian perspective. Search under the publications tab for policy papers, reports, the Cato Journal, etc.

Evaluating Think Tanks:

  • Sourcewatch is a wiki maintained by the Center for Media and Democracy and is a good place to find additional information on your think tank.

  • Wikipedia.  You can use wikipedia to get an overview of the issues that a think tank is discussing and what social, policy or political biases that it brings to the discussion.

Citing: