Reference Sources on Business and Economics

Sarah Aerni

Special Projects Librarian

University of Pittsburgh

6 April 2005

Overview of this Lecture

• The search process and practice with starting the research process

• Some sources of Economics and Business information (data, reports, working papers)

• Time for Questions

How to Begin Searching for Information

• As you may know, it is very easy to access a search engine, type something in, and find a document with those keywords in it.

• Finding trustworthy materials that contain the *best* information is much harder.

• Striving for a balanced viewpoint on the issue is often the best strategy.

The Search Process

• The search process starts with an idea or an “information need”. You have question that you want to answer.

• I like to begin with a piece of paper or a blank Word file.

• Put the main idea or question at the top of the page. Begin listing sources to search for this information that you already know.

• Think about different descriptive words that people use to talk about this topic. You will use these words later when we go to the search engines and databases.

Practice!

• Topic = Blue jean consumption in the United States and in China

Website Evaluation

• What things should be considered when you come to a new website for the first time, and you are looking for data for a research project?

• .com? .org? .net? .gov?• Use the “About” link to investigate who writes an

d who contributes to the site. • FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions. This is also

a good thing to read on your first visit to a site.

Another Source for Blue Jeans Information: Economic Census Data

• Searched this dataset for information on “Clothing”.

• On the downloaded .pdf file, there is some information about sales of blue jeans in the United States.

• It is split into men’s and women’s sectors, which must be combined to get totals.

American FactFinder

• http://factfinder.census.gov• Contains links to several important studies:- An Economic Census:

http://www.census.gov/econ/census02/- A National Census (done once every 10 years):

http://www.census.gov/main/www/cen2000.html- A community survey (updated yearly)

Economic Census at American Factfinder

• A detailed snapshot of the Nation’s economy, based on a survey conducted every five years of all businesses in the U.S.

• Purpose is to measure business activity of a business or industrial unit, or “establishment”.

• Establishments are classified according to NAICS (Industry classification codes).

• Non-profit organizations were included in this survey in 2002.

• Firms use the information on this survey to decide where to locate a new factory or store, and to develop marketing and sales strategies.

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

• www.nber.org• Great place for datasets, research publicatio

ns and “grey literature” (sometimes called “working papers”)

• Many datasets can be FTP’d and used for your own research projects.

• This is a great place to get ideas for interesting topics for a class project.

Resources for Economists on the Internet (also for Business research)

• http://www.rfe.org or mirror at:http://netec.ier.hit-u.ac.jp/EconFAQ.html• This is a only a list of good resources. It

includes about 1,589 resources, separated into sections based on what information they provide.

• Sponsored by the American Economic Association (AEA)

Business and Economics (B&E) Datalinks

• http://www.econ-datalinks.org/• Links to economic and financial data sources that

will interest economists and business statisticians.• Project sponsored by the B&E section of the

American Statistical Association (ASA).• Besides links to many data sources on the web,

this site is unique in that it allows users to provide feedback on the most helpful sites.

Bureau of Economic Analysis

• http://www.bea.doc.gov/• U.S. Department of Commerce• Official U.S. Government Economic Reporting

Agency• Much of the data are replicated elsewhere, but this

site is especially good for information on policy decisions taken by the Government.

• Focus is on U.S. data.

Federal Reserve Bank (United States)

• http://www.federalreserve.gov/

• Controls monetary policy for the United States (for example, interest rates)

• The FAQ is a good resource if you have a question about US monetary policy or about various economic terms.

To Be Continued…

• There is so much more information available on the Internet. I will continue this discussion next week, focusing more on retrieval of datasets. Same Time, Same Place!

• Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

• Thanks for coming!