Subject Guides: Economics: USM Resources

Key Resources in Economics

These resources contain basic overview information that can be useful when you're just beginning your research.

Oxford Reference Online
Many entries from Oxford reference books in all subject areas.

You can also search LibrarySearch for econ-specific encyclopedias and handbooks, many of which are accessible online! A few examples are below, but there are many more.

Handbook of Innovation Economics (E-book) by Korres, George M.
Call Number: E-book, click title to access

Publication Date: 2012
The Oxford Handbook of Post-Keynesian Economics, Volume 1 (Book) by G. C. Harcourt (Editor); Peter Kriesler (Editor)
Call Number: Request from LibrarySearch

ISBN: 9780195390766

Publication Date: 2013
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History (E-book) by Joel Mokyr (Editor)
Call Number: E-book, click title to access

ISBN: 9780195105070

Publication Date: 2003-10-16

Below are a few of the "top" journals in economics by the number of times their articles have been cited. To see many more journals in economics, including sub-specializations, see our Journals by Title page and select "Business & Economics" from the subject drop-down. On the results page a variety of Economics sub-disciplines are listed.

Quarterly Journal of Economics
Journal of Finance
This journal has a 1-year "embargo," meaning that any articles published within the past 12 months cannot be accessed.
American Economic Review
Journal of Financial Economics
Journal of Economic Literature
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Digest

Below are just a few of our databases useful for economics research. For more databases with economics content, check out our Databases A-Z page and select "Economics" from the drop-down.

Academic Search Complete
Multi- and inter-disciplinary database with academic journals, newspapers, and other periodicals. Can be a good starting point if you're not sure what direction you want to take your research yet.
Business Source Complete
RECOMMENDED, start here for a comprehensive business database. EBSCO’s Business Source Complete has full text coverage of over 3,700 journals in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance and more, plus an additional 3,000 journals that are indexed and abstracted. BSC also provides full text access to the Harvard Business Review and the top five business magazines.
Census Gateway
Census Gateway provides access to decennial census data, including population, housing, social and economic statistics for the United States through charts, graphs and a range of other formats, including custom search capabilities.
DOE Data Explorer
Use the DOE Data Explorer (DDE) to find scientific research data - such as computer simulations, numeric data files, figures and plots, interactive maps, multimedia, and scientific images - generated in the course of DOE-sponsored research in various science disciplines. The DOE Data Explorer provides access both to collections and to individual datasets that have been submitted to OSTI by their creator, by a DOE National Laboratory, or by a DOE Data Center
EconLit
EconLit, the American Economic Association's electronic database, contains more than 1.1 million records from 1886-present.
Fed In Print: An Index to Federal Reserve Economic Research
The FED IN PRINT is an on-line index to the publications of the Federal Reserve Research Departments. Publications include: periodical articles, working papers, annual reports, proceedings and monographs. Some of these resources are available in full text.
Historical Statistics of the United States
Historical Statistics of the United States updates and expands the Census Bureau's 1975 work of the same name. It contains quantitative historical information covering virtually every quantifiable dimension of American history: population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, governance, and international relations, all from the earliest times to the present. Also covers topics that received little or no coverage in the 1975 edition: American Indians, slavery, poverty, race, and ethnicity. Allows one to graph and combine data from different tables into custom tables, and to download tables for use in spreadsheets and other applications.
IBISWorld Industry Research Reports & Business Environment Profiles
IBISWorld’s Industry Research Reports are powerful business tools that provide strategic insight and analysis on over 700 U.S. industries and over 70 global industries.

Business Environment Profiles provide insight into these key drivers, which include exchange rates, commodity prices, interest rates, weather conditions, consumer attitudes, demographics and many more.
JSTOR
JSTOR is a full text digital archive of scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Coverage generally begins with the first issuse running to within 3 years of present. Current issues of journals are often available from other USM databases.
Maine Census Data
Numeric data base of U.S. Census population totals for Maine minor civil Divisions (cities, towns) and counties, from each decennial census, 1790 to present.
PsycINFO
Index to the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines, including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, and other areas. Coverage includes references and abstracts to over 1,300 journals in more than 20 languages, and to book chapters and books in the English language. The database includes information from empirical studies, case studies, surveys, bibliographies, literature reviews, discussion articles, conference reports and dissertations. Updated weekly
Sports Market Analytics
SBRnet is a leading source of sports market analytics for the academic community.
U.S. Census Data
This is the new platform to access data and digital content from the U.S. Census Bureau. The vision for data dissemination through data.census.gov is to improve the customer experience by making data available from one centralized place so that data users spend less time searching for data content and more time using it.
World Bank Data Catalog
World Bank Data Catalog accesses statistical databases and tables maintained by the World Bank. Resources include World Development Indicators, Global Development Finance, Global Economic Monitor, Millennium Development Indicators, and others.

You can search for books in our library and other libraries using the links below. If you're not sure how to find what you're looking for, ask us!

LibrarySearch (Library Catalog)
Catalog for the University of Maine system, including USM. You can choose to limit your search to USM, or search all UMS libraries. You can also search for journal articles here too.
MaineCat
If LibrarySearch doesn't have what you need, try MaineCat, the Catalog for Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin plus many public libraries in Maine. USM students may Request delivery to USM campus libraries.

WorldCat
You can widen your search to libraries worldwide using WorldCat. If you find a book you need, request it using the "Order through Illiad" link. Sign in or create a free ILLiad account.

Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad) Account
Create or sign into your free ILLiad account to electronically request journal articles that USM does not have, or to request print books, music scores, & videos not available through LibrarySearch and MaineCat.

Google Dataset Search
A Google search for datasets using a simple keyword search, to discover datasets hosted in thousands of repositories across the Web. Not all of these are free to use. Some will want you to pay
American Economic Association Data Sources
Links from the American Economic Association to some of the most useful and popular economics data sources, categorized by data type.
Bureau of Economic Analysis
The United State's BEA's economists produce some of the world's most closely watched statistics, including U.S. gross domestic product, better known as GDP. This includes state and local numbers, and foreign trade and investment stats and industry data.
Census Data Explorer
A site that allows you to create tables, and maps using USA Census data.
Census Survey Explorer
A tool from the US Census to find surveys or censuses by filtering and searching by geography, frequency, topics, and subtopics.
The Conference Board
The Conference Board publishes a number of regular indicators for United States and international economies that are widely tracked by investors and policy makers.
Consumer Price Index
Monthly data on changes in the prices paid by consumers for goods and services.
Data.gov
Pools and provides access to over 180,000 datasets from US Government Agencies.
Economic Indicators Current Data
The top 12 economic indicators, from the US Census Bureau.
Economic Report of the President
An annual report written by the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. 1995-Current.
FRED: Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis Economic Research
Data updated daily and allows 24/7 access to over 500,000 financial and economic data series from more than 85 public and proprietary sources.

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Data on nearly 400,000 domestic and international variables over time, in: Money, Banking & Finance, Population, Employment, & Labor Markets (including Income Distribution), National Accounts (Gross Domestic Product & its components), Flow of Funds, and International Accounts Production & Business Activity (including Business Cycles), Prices & Inflation (including the Consumer Price Index, the Producer Price Index, and the Employment Cost Index) International Data from other nations, U.S. Regional Data, Academic Data (including Penn World Tables & NBER Macrohistory database).
Institute for New Economic Thinking
Economic think tank aimed at solving society's biggest problems.
International Monetary Fund Database
A database from the IMF of international imports and exports.
Maine State Documents
A Digital Commons repository of government documents from Maine government agencies.
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Useful sections for statistics & data and publications.
The NBER is a private, nonpartisan organization that facilitates cutting-edge investigation and analysis of major economic issues.
National Longitudinal Surveys
A set of surveys designed to gather information at multiple points in time on the labor market activities and other significant life events of several groups of men and women.
National Quarterly Workforce Indicators Data
A beta release from the U.S. Census Bureau of new national statistics on quarterly workforce indicators in the United States constructed from Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) data
NationMaster
NationMaster is a statistics database which offers a large directory of variables for comparison purposes of 180 countries.

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Data comes from UNDP, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, UNCTAD, WTO, World Bank, World Health Organization, OECD and many others
Our World in Data
Open source data on large world problems such as poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality.
Quarterly workforce indicators (QWI) Explorer
A tool to manipulate the QWI data from the US Census Bureau
Statistical Abstracts for the United States
Statistical Compendia program is comprised of the Statistical Abstract of the United States and its supplemental products. Data on this site runs from to 1890 - 2011. To access the most current data, please refer to the organizations cited in the source notes for each table of the Statistical Abstract.
UN Economic & Social Development Statistics
US Economic Census
Data collected every 5 years for every industry.

Searching Tips and Tricks

Most databases allow for searching with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT).
- Use AND to focus your search and combine different aspects of your topic
- Use OR to broaden your search and find sources that use different words for the same concept.
- Use NOT to omit certain terms from your results.
Use an asterisk (*) to truncate words if you want to search for all words with that root. For example, “environment*” would search for environment, environmental, environmentalism, etc.
Put quotes around a phrase that you want the database to search as a phrase, rather than as individual words.
Group synonyms inside parentheses using OR between each one

Example:

LibrarySearch is the combined library catalog for the entire University of Maine system. You can search the entire system, or select University of Southern Maine Libraries in the drop-down.

Other helpful tips:

If you find a book that is relevant to your needs, look at the "Subject" area of the book's record. Click on a few of the subjects to find other similar books.
If the UMaine System doesn't have a book you want, we can get it for you through Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad).

There are many ways you can get research materials from other libraries. In the vast majority of cases, there is no charge to you for this service!

From LibrarySearch, use the button in the middle of an item's page.
From MaineCat, use the button in the middle of an item's page.