Business: Economics

Prepared by Marcy Carrel (mcarrel@nelson.usf.edu)

2 September 2008

Finding Articles (Suggested Databases):

If you are off campus, please login through Blackboard and click through to the USF Libraries homepage. Under the tab “Resources,” click on “Databases by Title/Subject,” to search for databases of interest.  If you have any questions, please contact the Nelson Poynter Library Reference Desk at 727-873-4124.

Selected Databases: General business and management

ABI/INFORM Global

This is a premier business database which provides access to a wide variety of business literature, covering nearly 1800 business periodicals and scholarly journals, as well as the Wall Street Journal.  Much of the database is full-text. 

Business and Company Resource Center (Thomson Gale)

Search by company, by industry, or within a collection of full-text articles on business and industry.  Includes investment reports, rankings, and market share data, when available.  Industry information is also available by SIC or NAICS codes and from specialized business encyclopedias.

Business Source Premier (EBSCO)

A key scholarly database in the field of business, BSP provides full-text articles from over 2,300 journals.  Full text articles (PDF) from the Harvard Business Review date back to 1922.  BSP also includes market research, industry, and country reports from Datamonitor, EIU and other sources.

Selected Databases: Economics

The Conference Board: business, knowledge, research

Research from the Conference Board includes annual reports on compensation and corporate governance and research studies of Fortune 500 companies on business trends, leadership, ethics and other top issues.  Economic research includes the Consumer Confidence and the Help Wanted Indexes.

EconLit (EBSCO)

From the American Economic Association, the EconLit database is an expanded version of the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL), with references dating back to 1969 for journal articles, books, collective volume articles, dissertations, working papers, and full-text book reviews.  The database provides links to full-text articles in all fields of economics, including environmental economics, econometrics, forecasting, and government regulations, among others.  Examples of publications included are Accounting Review, Advances in Macroeconomics, Business Economics, and Journal of Applied Business Research.

EIU Executive Briefing and EIU ViewsWire

These two databases from the EIU/Economist Intelligence Unit can be searched individually or together.  ViewsWire provides business intelligence on 203 countries – special reports and data and markets analysis.  Executive Briefing is a global perspective on management, including global business; strategy and competition; sales and marketing; finance and performance; technology and operations; and leadership.

*FRED/Federal Reserve Economic Data (http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/)

From the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) is a database of over 13,000 U.S. economic time series.  Data can be downloaded into Microsoft Excel or text formats.  In July 2007, over 11,000 data series were added to the regional data category, including labor force and unemployment rate time series for every state, county, and MSA in the U.S.

*FRASER/Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research (http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/)

Also from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRASER is the historical companion to FRED, providing links to scanned images (PDF format) of historical economical statistical publications.  Included, for example, are bank statistics from 1896-1955.

*NBER National Bureau of Economic Research (http://www.nber.org/)

“Founded in 1920, the National Bureau of Economic Research is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works. The NBER is committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community.”  The site includes access to publications and programs of NBER, and data from the NBER collection, as well as links to other data resources for economic research.

STAT-USA / Internet

This service from the U.S. Department of Commerce provides access to both “STON”/State of the Nation for U.S. economic and financial data and “GLOBUS & NTDB” for international market research, trade opportunities, country analysis, and the NTDB/National Trade Data Bank library.  Includes Country Background Notes and Country Commercial Guides.

SourceOECD

From OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, SourceOECD is comprised of over 1,800 online books, 24 periodicals, and 26 OECD statistical databases, all in full text. Data can be downloaded to create custom tables; searching across databases enabled through OECD.Stat.

WDI Indicators (World Development Bank)

WDI from the World Bank includes statistical data for over 900 development indicators from 1960 to the present for over 200 countries.  Data includes social, economic, financial, natural resource, and environmental indicators and can be exported and downloaded in Excel format.

*indicates a publicly-available web site; others are through USF Libraries subscriptions.

Selected Periodicals: Economics

To locate additional related journals (print or electronic), search or browse the USF Libraries catalog.  To specifically locate only electronic journals, select “E-Journals by Title.”  Please note that this information changes often.

Finding Books (USF Online Catalog):

Using the LC classification system, books on economics are generally found in HB for economic theory and HC for economic history and conditions.  Economics books may also be found within specific geography such as “France - economic conditions” or within disciplines or topics such as “Communication - economic aspects”.  Other economics-related subject headings include “managerial economics,” “economic geography,” and “Marxian economics”.

Searching the catalog by subject headings or keywords will identify e-books to read online, as well as the books on the shelves.  Reference books are on the first floor of the Poynter Library; books in the circulating collection (A-HN) are on the second floor; and HQ-Z is on the third floor.

Selected Reference Books:  (Poynter Library, first floor)

The American economy:  a historical encyclopedia / edited by Cynthia Clark Northrup

(REF HC102.A66 2003)

Volume one contains short entries; volume two contains authored essays and primary source documents.  Also included are bibliographical references and an index.

Business statistics of the United States: patterns of economic change 12th ed. /

(REF HC101.A13122 2007)

This Bernan Press publication on the U.S. economy contains about 3,500 economic time series.  Each chapter covers a topic, such as consumer income and spending, and includes extensive notes and definitions, as well as data tables.

Dictionary of economics / John Black (REF HB661.B554 2002)

From Oxford University Press, this is a single-volume dictionary of economic terminology.

Dictionary of environmental economics

This slim volume from Earthscan includes a list of acronyms and abbreviations, a dictionary of terms, and an extensive list of references.

Dictionary of environmental economics, science, and policy (REF HC79.E5.G685 2001)

This reference publication begins with three introductory essays on environmental economics and an annotated reference list, followed by a dictionary with very brief entries for terms and concepts.  The book concludes with seven appendices, including one on environmental treaties and conventions. 

Dictionary of international economics terms (REF HG3880 .D53 2006)

This small 300-page glossary provides brief definitions of terms such as hire purchase (UK); franc fort (France); Kondratieff cycle (Russia); and tournament theory.

The Federal Reserve System: An encyclopedia / R.W. Hafer (REF HG2563.H235 2005)

Beginning with a short history of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, this single-volume encyclopedia covers a variety of topics such as the Bank Holiday of 1933; the FDIC; John Maynard Keynes; the Bretton Woods system; and disintermediation.  Each entry provides a few resources for further reading.

Household spending: who spends how much on what (REF HC110.C6 H68 2006)

Based on Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) data, this 600+ page reference publication looks at spending by age and income groups on categories such as apparel, entertainment, transportation, and shelter and utilities.

The New Palgrave dictionary of economics and the law / ed. by Peter Newman (REF K487.E3.N48 1998)

This three-volume dictionary includes authored essays for concepts such as “prisoners’ dilemma” and “self-governance of common-pool resources”.  Each essay also provides a bibliography for further reading.

The Oxford encyclopedia of economic history, 5 vols. (REF HC15.O94 2003)

This five-volume encyclopedia of economic history includes maps, illustrations, bibliographical references, and an index.

The value of a dollar:  colonial era to the Civil War, 1600-1865 / edited by Scott Derks and Tony Smith (REF HB235.U6 V358 2005) 2 vols.

and

The value of a dollar:  prices and incomes in the United States, 1860-2004 / by Scott Derks. (REF HB235.U6 V35 2004)

These companion reference books provide a historical look at prices, incomes, and purchasing power in the United States from 1600 to present day.

World Development Indicators (REF HC 59.15.W656 2008)

Annual publication from the World Bank and partner organizations provides statistical data by country in the areas of economic growth, health, education, demographics, the environment, and states and markets.  Includes a brief narrative for each section.  See also the WDI Indicators database noted above.

World Economic Outlook (REF HC 10.W7979 2008)

Annual report from the IMF/International Monetary Fund is also available at www.imf.org.  Coverage of current global economic trends and issues such as “Oil prices and global imbalances” and “How has globalization affected inflation?”  Includes an extensive statistical appendix.

Selected Web sites:

There are many economics-related Web sites.  Some of the more useful sites that I have bookmarked can be located at http://del.icio.us/marcylibrarian/economics.  (This list changes often!)  A few selected sites are noted below:

“Best of the Best Business Web sites”, from BRASS-Business Reference and Services Section (RUSA, ALA/American Library Association) (http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaourassoc/rusasections/brass/brassprotools/bestofthebestbus/bestbestbusiness.htm)

A list of Web sites by business category and selected by a group of reference librarians.  See the sub-category “Economics”.

Economic Census (http://www.census.gov/econ/census02/)

Conducted every five years, the U.S. Economic Census provides a profile of U.S. business by industry (NAICS code) and by geography.  Data collected includes number of establishments, number of employees, and sales.

Federal Reserve System (http://www.federalreserve.gov/)

"The Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, was founded by Congress in 1913 to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system."  See especially the links to “economic research and data.”

IMF/International Monetary Fund (http://www.imf.org/external/)

“The IMF is an organization of 185 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty.”  The IMF publishes “World Economic Outlook”, a great resource for comparing financial and economic data across countries.

OECD/Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (http://www.oecd.org)

The OECD has 30 member countries and cooperative agreements with 70 other countries.  OECD also collects economic and social data, monitors trends, analyses and forecasts economic developments and researches social changes.  See also the USF subscription to the SourceOECD database noted above.

World Bank Doing Business database (http://www.doingbusiness.org/)

The World Bank Doing Business database includes country-specific reports, news, and updates on ‘doing business’ in other countries.  See also the WDI Indicators database noted above.  

Remember, you may contact a Reference Librarian in person, by phone (727/873-4124), or via chat (from the Ask a Librarian link on the USF Libraries web site).

Marcy Carrel

Email: mcarrel@nelson.usf.edu

Blog:   http://BusinessResearchUSFSP.blogspot.com/

Updated:  September 2, 2008