Last revised: August 2009

Economics Research

Scope: This guide lists sources of information for researching economics. University of Maryland at College Park faculty, staff, and students may email the librarian subject area specialist Maggie Saponaro for more information.

NOTE: Because of licensing agreements, some of these resources can only be used by current faculty, staff, and students of the University of Maryland, College Park. These are marked UM only.

Books

To locate books, you can search the UMCP Libraries Catalog.

Some important notes when searching the catalog:

• The catalog identifies what the Libraries own, where the journals, books, videos, magazines, newspapers, encyclopedias, government publications, etc. are located, and their availability.
• The catalog DOES NOT list journal articles. See the Indexes and Abstracts section of this guide to identify databases that list or provide full text journal articles.
• Keyword searches will locate words and terms when they appear in the title, subject headings or notes of a record.
• You can limit your search by adding additional terms or otherwise narrowing the scope of your search.

Some common Economics subject headings and keywords that can be used in the box below to search the UM Catalog include:

The search box below will open the Catalog and launch your search in a new window.

These terms can also be used to locate materials in other online resources such as indexes and abstracts. Please note: These terms represent only a small sample of all searchable concepts. For more specific searching instructions, please contact the Economics subject librarian.

return to top

Encyclopedias and Handbooks

• Handbooks in Economics: UM only
  Full text of the Handbooks in Economics series, which primarily include survey articles by leading economics scholars. Arranged into 28 different titles by broad topic. NOTE: To access items in the series, click on the "Full text via ScienceDirect" link below the title, NOT on the volume number.
• New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics: UM only
  One of the most extensive and authoritative economics reference resources available. It contains over 1,850 articles by more than 1,500 of the world's leading economists.
• Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History: UM only
  Fully searchable text of the encyclopedia, including over 900 articles from leading scholars with extensive bibliographies.

return to top

Indexes and Abstracts

Arranged in order of preference, the databases listed below can be used to locate articles or other resources on Economics-related topics.

• EconLit: UM only
  A first stop for Economics research, this database is the source of citations and abstracts to economic research in over 400 books, journals, dissertations, and working papers.
• Business Source Complete: UM only
  Full-text business resource database.
• Current Index to Statistics: UM only
  References are drawn from 162 core journals that are fully indexed, non-core journals from which articles are selected that have statistical content, proceedings, edited books, and other sources.
• JSTOR: Economics: UM only
  Archival collection of journals.
• Digital Dissertations: UM only
  A source for information about doctoral dissertations and master's theses. Full text is available from 1997 to the present.
• RePEc/EconPapers
  Worldwide cooperative database of economics articles is similar to EconLit, but with less authoritative coverage of the core journals and more coverage of (and links to) working papers and other unpublished scholarship.
• AgEcon Search
  Free archive of full text articles in agricultural and applied economics includes archived copies of many important journals in the field (often with archival, not current, coverage). Most of these journals are also indexed in EconLit.
• NBER Working Papers Online (NBER)
  Full text of working papers from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
• Berkeley Electronic Press: UM only
  Full-text, peer reviewed, quality-rated electronic journals from the BE Press.

return to top

Current News Sources

The resources listed below are useful for obtaining current news on business and Economics-related topics.

• The Baseline Scenario
  Blog dedicated to "explaining some of the key issues in the global economy and developing concrete policy proposals." Topics covered include banking, mortgages, economic stimulus, and regulation. Also features a "Financial Crisis for Beginners" section.
• EIU Viewswire: UM only
  From the Economist Intelligence Unit. Full-text country news providing analysis and forecast information for approximately 200 countries.
• Factiva: UM only
  From Dow Jones. Full-text access to over 8,000 business sources including national and international newspapers, magazines, wire services, web sites and industry (trade) sources. Click on "News Pages" for current table-of-contents listing and full-text of the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and other major financial publications. Internet Explorer 5.01 or higher recommended. Licensing restrictions apply.
• LexisNexis Academic: UM only
  Offers a wide range of news, political, legal, business, and reference information in full text.
• Westlaw Campus Research: UM only
  Full-text access to national and international newspapers, journals, and trade sources. Includes over 900 television and radio transcripts and 400 newswires.

return to top

Economic Statistics

• Balance of Payments Statistics: UM only
  From the International Monetary Fund (IMF), summarizes, for a specific period, the economic transactions of an economy with the rest of the world. Reports total goods, services, factor income, and current transfers an economy receives from or provides to the rest of the world as well as capital transfers and changes in each economy's external financial claims and liabilities.
• BigCharts
  Provides access to interactive charts, quotes, industry analysis and intraday stock screeners, market news and commentary. Charts can be e-mailed. The Interactive Charting option allows users to select from seven different charting styles, modify visual effects, and use various technical analysis indicators on the same graph.
• Bureau of Economic Analysis
  From the U.S. Department of Commerce, provides data in four categories (National, International, Regional, Industry) called economic accounts. Includes access to the U.S. Economy at a Glance. BEA site updates are available via an RSS feed.
• Country Data
  The online CIA World Factbook, with statistical and narrative information on countries covering nine categories. Economic information available includes: "Central bank discount rate," "Commercial bank prime lending rate," "Stock of money," "Stock of quasi money," and "Stock of domestic credit."
• Economagic
  Offers a comprehensive list of free, easily available economic time series data useful for economic research, in particular economic forecasting.
• Economic Census
  Profiles of American businesses, from the U.S. Census.
• Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED)
  A database of over 20,000 U.S. economic time series, arranged by categories such as banking, business/fiscal, consumer price index (CPI), employment, and regional data. Data can be used in conjunction with information available in the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRASER) and Archival Federal Reserve Economic Data (ALFRED) systems to create uninterrupted data series.
• Finding Federal Statistics
  A guide to statistics produced by the U.S. federal government.
• Global Development Finance
  From the World Bank, provides information for 129 developing economies worldwide. Data begins in 1970.
• Global Distribution of Poverty
  From the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University, this site provides access to subnational poverty data sets and maps. Useful for studies in poverty, food security, and inequality. An Atlas of Poverty is available for download.
• Maryland Statistics
  A guide for locating statistical sources on Maryland.
• Penn World Tables 6.2
  Provides "purchasing power parity and national income accounts" for 188 countries, with data covering some of or all the years 1950-2004. From the Center for International Comparisons of Production, Income and Prices at the University of Pennsylvania.
• United Nations Statistical Databases
  Access point for UN Economic databases. Links to other demographic and environmental databases and data produced by the UN may be found from the main Economic Statistics page.
• USDA Economics, Statistics and Market Information System
  Reports and datasets produced by the US Department of Agriculture.
• World Development Indicators Online (WDI): UM only
  Provides direct access to more than 550 development indicators, with time series for 200 countries and 18 country groups from 1960, where data are available. Data export options in Excel or ASCII.
• World Economic Outlook
  Free online database, updated biannually by the International Monetary Fund with coverage back to 1993. Similar to World Development Indicators in providing basic statistics, but more limited in both scope and history. Includes commodity price data and regional data not easily available in WDI.
• World Trade Organization
  Information about international trade – including policies and statistics. Publications of the WTO are accessible through the WTO Documents Online database.

return to top

General Web Resources for Economics

• Beige Book
  From the Federal Reserve Board, contains "anecdotal information on current economic conditions" from each Federal Reserve Bank. Published eight times per year.
• Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions
  From the National Bureau of Economic Research.
• Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO): UM only
  Mostly full-text database which publishes a wide range of scholarship including working papers from research institutes, occasional paper series from NGOS, policy briefs, case studies, conference proceedings and papers, course packs, book chapters and journal articles.
• Conference Board: UM only
  Contains full-text information about strategic management research issues and economic research analysis, reports and data.
• Economic Report of the President (EOP)
  Includes an electronic version of the most recent EOP, as well as archived copies of prior reports.
• Group of 30
  Non-profit organization formed to "deepen understanding of international economic and financial issues, to explore the international repercussions of decisions taken in the public and private sectors, and to examine the choices available to market practitioners and policymakers." Full text of publications and reports are available online.
• IMF Country Information
  Country reports and information from the International Monetary Fund.
• SourceOECD: UM only
  The online library of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Comprises 20 book collections by theme, containing all OECD monographs and reports, most OECD periodicals, and the OECD statistical databases.

return to top

Maryland Economic Conditions

• County Business Patterns
  From the U.S. Census.
• FDIC State Profiles
  Current data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for Maryland and Washington, D.C.
• Maryland Agricultural Statistics
  Links to statistics and reports from the US Department of Agriculture.
• Maryland State Data Center
  State data, estimates and projections.
• Mid-Atlantic Economy: Maryland
  Summary data for Maryland on such items as Consumer Price Index, Consumer Expenditure Survey, and Employment and Unemployment. Also available is Maryland Economy at a Glance. From the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

return to top

Other Research Guides

• Resources For Economists (RFE)
  Contains links to more than 2,000 economics-related Internet resources organized in 97 sections and sub-sections. Includes the Economics Search Engine, allowing users to search over 23,000 economics-related websites. Sponsored by the American Economic Association.
• Virtual Business Information Center (VBIC)
  Contains a collection of electronic and print business resources intended to provide research assistance to the Robert H. Smith School of Business and general users seeking authoritative business information.

return to top

Citing Sources

• Citing Sources Using APA
  A guide to the American Psychological Association (APA) citation system.
• Citation Systems and Style Guides
  Provides a basic introduction to the citation process, including why citing is important and what needs to be cited. Includes an overview of the two types of citation systems commonly encountered (parenthetical references tied to a list of sources vs. foot or endnotes).

return to top