Econ 120 - Research Guide
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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. 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 should include "law", "legislation", and possibly even "regulations". Journals of particular interest should include: Eocnomist, Journal of Economic Perspectives
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ProQuest National Newspapers (Current News) provide access to the major newspapers in the United States. Use them to find news articles and opinion/editorial pieces.
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Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe - News. Select US News (under category) for regional coverage. Select World News (under category) for world coverage. 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.
International Topics:
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ProQuest International Newsstand provides access to English language newspapers worldwide. This is an excellent place to go for local perspectives on international issues.
Industry and Labor:
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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.
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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.
Statistical Resources
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Statistical Universe provides statistics compiled by local, state, and federal agencies. It is best to use the subject search to find the best data.
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Statistical Abstract of the United States compiles major statistics from US federal publications. Handy and quick resource for general statistics on the US population, health, economy, etc.
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FEDSTATS provides access to statistical sites for more than 70 federal agencies. Excellent jumping off point for federal and state data.
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Social Statistics Briefing Room provides quick access to social statistics published by the US government. These include stats on population, health, crime, and education.
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Economic Statistics Briefing Room provides quick access to economic statistics published by the US government. Statistical categories include: employment, income, money, output, prices, production, and transportation.
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Beige Book provides quarterly and annual summaries of economic conditions for each of the Federal Reserve Districts. Statistics are embedded in summaries.
Thinktanks and Working Papers
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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 Institute 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.
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University of Michigan Library Documents Center - Political Science Resources - Think Tanks provides a directory with description of major think tanks in the United States devoted to policy issues.
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National Bureau of Economic Research is one of the best resources for finding working papers written by nationally know Economist. Many of the working papers may be too technical for your purposes, but some have excellent statistical data and provide incredible overviews to policy topics.
Citing