Transcript Reference Sources on Business and Economics

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
and 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
publications 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!