ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries S ep tem b er 1 9 9 4 / 4 7 5 Internet resources for economics By Keith M organ and D eborah Kelly-Milb u m A cornucopia o f worldwide economic indicators N ote: In all examples the home site o f the information is given; however, many of these resources are “mirrored” at other sites or pointed to by local gophers. Check your local resources. Economic indicators and reports There are several excellent Internet collections of statistical data. This is an area that should significantly expand as more U.S. and, ideally, other national government information b e ­ comes Internet-accessible. • Econom ic Bulletin Board (EBB): A first- rate example of an Internet resource that can be recommended as a research tool to patrons or used as a quick reference resource at an in­ formation desk. EBB offers the user access to thousands of data files, 700 o f which are updat­ ed daily, in 22 different areas. The data are very diverse, covering such areas as employment statistics, energy shipments, the Survey o f Cur­ rent Manufactures datasheets, and U.S. dollar exchange rates at both 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. EST, Monday to Friday. A number o f software pro­ grams to aid in both viewing and working with widescreen files are available from the ftp site in compressed, binary format. EBB is available via the University of Mich­ igan Libraries. Files are generally updated on a daily basis, whenever possible. Four file areas are emptied at the beginning o f each month; these are Trade Opportunity Program, USDA Agricultural Leads, International Market Insight Reports, and Eastern Europe Trade Leads. A c­ cess: Gopher “gopher.lib.umich.edu” /social scien ces resources/ econom ics; or: Telnet “una.hh.lib.umich.edu” login as “gopher”; or: Anonymous ftp “una.hh.lib.umich.edu” /pub/. EBB is also available directly from the De­ partment of Commerce for a fairly modest sub­ scription fee. As o f this writing this fee-based access method requires the user to search the Commerce bulletin board system, a method far less intuitive than gopher or ftp access, which will eventually be available directly from Com­ merce. Access: Telnet “ebb.stat-usa.gov” login as “guest”. • N ation al T rad e D ata B an k (NTDB): This valuable collection o f data has been avail­ able in CD-ROM format for several years; how­ ever, on June 16 the Department o f Commerce made it accessible via the Internet. Some of the many programs on NTDB include The Foreign T ra d er’s In d ex , M arket R esearch Reports, The CIA W orld F actbook, the complete text of the GATT and NAFTA agreements, and U.S. In d u s­ trial Outlook. There are plans for many other government agencies to disseminate informa­ tion through NTDB. This includes the White House, the departments o f State, Treasury, De­ fense, and Energy, the CIA, the International Trade Commission, and the Federal Reserve Board. A ccess: Gopher “gopher.stat-usa.gov”; o r: WWW “http://www.stat-usa.gov/Ben/ TradePromo.html”; or: Anonymous ftp “ftp.stat- usa.gov”. • EconD ata: This is an interesting supple­ ment to EBB. EconData consists o f several hun­ dred thousand time series datasets from both U.S. national, state, local, and international sources. All data is in compressed zip format Keith Morgan is reference librarian a n d econom ics subject specialist at the Massachusetts Institute o f Technology, e-mail: kam organ@m it.edu; D eborah Kelly-Milbum is research librarian a t H arvard University, e-mail: m ilbu m @ w iden erl.mhs.harvard.edu http://www.stat-usa.gov/Ben/ mailto:kamorgan@mit.edu mailto:milbum@widenerl.mhs.harvard.edu 4 7 6 /C& RL News and mounted in the G data regression and model building program. There are three main file areas: Data, Tools, and Instructions. First­ time users should get the files contents.doc, gbank.doc, and guide.doc from the Instructions directory. These files are all in ASCII format. E x a m p le s o f d ata a v a ila b le th ro u g h EconData include the Annual Incom e and Product Accounts, Flow o f Funds Accounts, Monthly National Employment, Hours, Earn­ ings and Diffusion Indices, Producer Price and Consumer Price Indexes, and the blue pages from the Survey o f C u rrent B u siness. The es­ sential advantages o f EconData are the archi­ val nature o f its files and the standardized G D ata-B an k form at. A c c ess : G op h er “info. umd.edu” /EducationalResources/EconData; or: Anonymous ftp to “info.umd.edu” /Info/ EconData. • NBER: The National Bureau of Econom­ ic Research gopher provides the Penn World Tables, an expanded dataset of international comparisons as well as an index of NBER pub­ lications. The ftp site also has the Survey o C on su m er F in a n c es (62-63; 83-86; 89), NBER trade and immigration data, as well as every­ th in g o n th e g o p h e r. A c c e s s : G o p h e r “n b e r.h a rv a rd .e d u ”; o r : A n onym ous ftp “nber.harvard.edu” /pub/0. • NEEEDC: The New England Electronic Economic Data Center offers the Federal Re­ serve Bank of New England’s Economic Indi­ cators (1 9 6 9 - ). Also mounted at this site is the Regional Economic Information System (REIS) CD-ROM. The data are in ‚PRN format and can be read directly by Lotus or Quattro. Access: Anonymous ftp “neeedc.um esbs.m aine.edu “pass” for password cd frbb (for Reserve Bank Data) cd bea (for REIS). • Dow-Jones: For a set of Dow-Jones his­ torical averages three files are available: 1) Dow- Jones Industrial Averages, 1885-1985; 2) Date, high, low, and close for DJIA from 1952-1990; 3) DJIA close from 1900-1952. Access: Gopher “econ.lsa.umich.edu” /data/. • In v e stm e n t D ata: This site contains some public domain investment finance data for the U.S. Although this is “unofficial” data, there are some interesting market data and pro­ grams. A partial listing o f about 5,000 ticker symbols and a shareware copy of DC Econo­ metrics’ stock market forecasting models are just two examples of what is available here. A ccess: Anonymous ftp “dg-rtp.dg.com” /pub misc.invest. f ” / • SEC: The EDGAR project allows public access via the Internet to 10Q, 10K, and other financial disclosure information required by the SEC. The service is just getting started and not all companies are available; however, all pub­ licly traded companies are required to file elec­ tronically by the end of 1995. This means that eventually this site will contain financial data for more than 15,000 companies. Access: Go­ pher “town.hall.org” /SEC Edgar; or: Anony­ mous ftp “townhall.org” /Edgar/; or: WWW “http ://town. hall. org” /edgar/edgar.html/. • H istoric P rice Data: A dataset of com­ modity price indexes from the U.K., U.S., Can­ ada, Norway, and Sweden. U.K. numbers go back to 1600, the U.S. to 1790. All other coun­ tries com plete from 1870 onwards. A ccess: Gopher “niord.shsu.edu” /economics/historic price data/. • Statistics Canada G opher: A new ser­ vice as o f February 1994, this site so far only lists the daily economic reports and the release data of new economic indicators. Avail­ able in English or French. A ccess: Gopher “talon.statcan.ca”. • C oun try R eports: The 4th annual E co­ n o m ic P olicy a n d T rade P ractices report from the U.S. Department o f State provides detailed reports regarding the economic policies and trade practices of each country with which the U.S. has an economic or trade relationship. Each report is divided into nine areas and includes such information as key economic indicators, exchange rate policies, debt management pol­ icies, and an assessment of protections avail­ able for U.S. intellectual property. A ccess: Go­ pher “umslvma.umsl.edu” /library/govdocs/. • Labor Statistics: LABSTAT, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ public database, provides cur­ rent and historical data for 25 surveys. These include such databases as comprehensive C on­ su m er P rice In d e x data, In tern ation al L a b o r Sta­ tistics, The P ro d u cer P rice Index, and Em ploy­ m ent Cost In dex. See the file “overview.doc” in the “doc” directory for information on file stor­ age. Access: Anonymous ftp “ftp.bls.gov” /pub/ time, series. • Fed eral Reserve Bank: This site con­ tains information from the Federal Reserve Board’s statistical release series. Data such as the Flow o f Funds Tables, Reserves of Depos­ itory Institutions, Selected Interest Rates, and other money stock measures and components are available. A ccess: Gopher “town.hall.org” / F e d e ra l R e se rv e ; o r : A n o n y m o u s ftp S ep tem b er 1 9 9 4 / 4 7 7 “townhall.org” /other/fed/; or: WWW “http:// town, hall. org/other/fed/”. • Social Security A dm inistration : The electronic information system o f the Office of Social Security offers the complete Current Op­ eratin g Statistics from the S ocial Security B u l­ letin and selected information from the data tables in the A n n u a l Statistical Supplement. A c­ cess: Gopher “oss968.ssa.gov”; or: Anonymous ftp “soafl.ssa.gov” /pub/; or: WWW “http:// www.ssa.gov/SSA_Home.html”. • Fed eral Deposit In su ran ce C o rp o ra­ tion: There are three valuable datasets on the FDIC gopher: The Statistics on B an kin g, 1991; The Statistics on B an kin g, 1992; The H istorical Statistics on B an kin g, 1 9 3 4 -1 9 9 2 . Also, in the C on su m er In form ation D irectory is information on the Bank Rating Services, consumer rights, and insured deposits. Data files are primarily in Lotus 123 .WK1 format; text files are in both ASCII and WordPerfect 5.1. A ccess: Gopher “fdic.sura.net 71”. • B ank o f England: T h e B a n k o f E n g lan d Q u arterly B u lletin time series data can be searched at this site. Access is very slow. A c­ cess: T eln et “su n .n sf.a c.u k ” login: “ja n e t” hostnam e: “uk.ac.sw urcc” usernam e: press [send] which service: PMAC [and] select 3 from the menu. • U.K. C entral Statistical Office: This site offers a search and extraction system for the Central Statistical Office’s Macro-Economic Time Series data. Access is also very slow. Access: Telnet “sun.nsf.ac.uk” login “janet” hostname: “uk.ac.swurcc” username: press [send] which service: PMAC [and] select 1 from the menu. Private datasets An interesting use of the Internet has arisen as authors m ount com p lem entary eco n o m ic datasets that relate to their own books and ar­ ticles. Four recent examples are: • John Abowd and Richard Freeman’s edi­ tion o f the NBER Project Research Report Im ­ m igration, T rade a n d the L a b o r M arket (Uni­ versity of Chicago Press, 1991). A ccess: Gopher “nber.harvard.edu” /pub/trade.immigration. • The dataset associated with David Backus and Patrick Kehoe’s “International Evidence of the Historical Properties of Business Cycles,” A m e r ic a n E c o n o m ic R eview 82 (Septem ber 1992). Access: Anonymous ftp “uts.mcc.ac.uk” /pub/Krichel/DatEc. • Gauss programs and datasets for count models and duration regression models associ­ ated with Gary King and Andrew Gelman’s re­ search, particularly in King’s Unifying P olitical M e th o d o lo g y (Cam bridge University Press, 1989). A ccess: Anonymous ftp “haavelmo. harvard.edu” pub/count; pub/judgeit; pub/ maxlink. • The Penn World Tables dataset discussed in Robert Summer and Alan Heston’s “The Penn World Table (Mark 5): An Expanded Set o f In­ ternational Comparisons,” Quarterly J o u r n a l o f E con om ics 106 (May 1991). A ccess: Anonymous ftp “nber.harvard.edu /pub/pwt55/. Software libraries • Many economics articles are written with the LaTeX typesetting program. Several archive sites have style files that correspond with vari­ ous journal requirements. Bibliographic style files for the A m erican E co n o m ic Review, the C a n a d ia n J o u m a l o f E conom ics, and others are available. Access: Gopher “pip.shsu.edu” Eco- nomics/EconBib. • The Netlib arch ive is a library of math­ ematical software and databases. The programs originated in various U.S. research labs and are generally of very high quality. Most are written in Fortran but some other languages, particu­ larly C and C++, are now available. Some well- known numerical software are on this site, in­ cluding Linpack, Eispack, and Lapack. There are a number o f sites available, several of w h ich are liste d b elo w . A c c e s s : G o p h er “wuecon.wustl.edu” /Washington University Economics Gopher/ NetLib /; or: Anonymous ftp “netlib2.cs.utk.edu”. • The Statlib arch iv e o f statistical soft­ ware contains a large collection o f statistics, data, directory lists, and random material. StatLib contains the source code to entire statistics packages such as XlispStat. This site is proba­ bly not as valuable to economists as Netlib. A ccess: G op her “lib .stat.cm u .ed u ”; or: ftp “lib.stat.cmu.edu” (login as “statlib”, not anon­ ymous). Working papers Like many academic disciplines, economics dis­ seminates preliminary research through the preprint process o f working papers. Several projects have begun to use the Internet as a wider and more efficient transmission medi­ um. Three noteworthy projects are: • The NetEc p roject: This is an attempt to assemble an extensive bibliography of cur­ rent working papers in economics from depart- http://www.ssa.gov/SSA_Home.html%e2%80%9d 4 7 8 /C & RL News ments all over the world (BibEc), in addition to an archive collection o f the working papers (WoPEc). Access: Gopher “uts.mcc.ac.uk” /Eco­ nomics— NetEc/; or: Telnet “uts.m cc.ac.uk lo g in in as “N etE c”; o r: A nonym ous ftp “uts.mcc.ac.uk” /pub/ NetEc/. • The E con -w ρ arch ive: This is a project o f the University of Washington at St. Louis that provides an In tern et site for storing and accessing working papers in economics. The site is arranged according to the classifica­ tion schem e from the J o u r n a l o f E c o n o m ic L it e r a t u r e . T h e W eb s erv e r w ill d isp lay papers in PostScript format. A ccess: Gopher “e co n w p a .w u stl.e d u ”; o r: WWW “http:// econwpa.wustl.edu/Welcome.html”. • T h e U n iv e r s ity o f M ich ig a n (U M ) D ep artm en t o f E con om ics: This gopher serv­ er has a directory of UM department working papers as well as a directory o f working pa­ pers related to the economics o f the Internet. Access: Gopher “econ.lsa.umich.edu” /working papers/; o r : WWW “h ttp :/ / g o p h e r.e co n lsa.umich.eduEconInternet.html”. Newsgroups The newsgroup “sci.econ” is the main Usenet Econom ics related new sgroup for general d is c u s s io n . A m o d e ra te d n e w s g ro u p , “sci.econ.research” was created in June 1993. Other newsgroups o f interest to economists include: • comp.text.tex: the TeX typesetting syste • misc.invest: investment finance • sci.stat.math: statistics and math • sci.stat.edu: statistics and education • comp-soft.sys: SAS • comp-soft.sys.spss: SPSS • comp-soft.sys.shazam: the Shazam statis­ tics package • The archives o f several groups can be found on the J o u r n a l o f Statistics E d u ca tio n gopher at North Carolina State University. These include SAS-L; SPSSx-L; Stat-L; and Chance. A c cess: Gopher “jse.stat.ncsu.edu” /Other Discus­ sion Groups/. • For the archives o f Pol-Econ and FedTax- L: Access: Gopher “niord.shsu.edu” / Econom­ ics (SHSU Network Access Initiative Project)/ A rch iv es o f P o l-E c o n , F e d T a x -L , and sci.econ.research/. Finding other resources This is a very selective guide to resources on ” . m ­ the Internet for economists. Since economics is such a pervasive discipline, you can be sure that the number of Internet resources will con­ tinue to grow. A guide such as this can only touch on some o f the more pertinent sites; oth­ er guides are available on the network. A go­ pher at the University of Michigan maintains a clearinghouse of subject-oriented Internet re­ source guides, including several for economists. A particularly noteworthy guide is Bill Goffe’s “Resources for Economists on the Internet.” A c c ess : G o p h er “u n a .h h .lib .u m ich .e d u ” / inetdirs. It is a sad fact o f life on the network, how­ ever, that as soon as most guides are pub­ lished, they are already out o f date. For those who wish to search for current econom ics in­ formation on the Internet, gophers provide easy access. There are a number o f gophers that have grouped inform ation by subject (subject trees) and the gopher at Michigan State University provides an excellent start­ ing place, connecting to over 20 different lo­ cations. The. subject tree at Rice University is especially useful, with well over 100 resourc­ e s a c c e s s ib le . A c c e s s : G o p h e r “b u rro w . cl.msu.edu” /network & database resources/ internet by subject. For the scholar searching for a particular piece o f information on the Internet, Veronica and Jughead are the best tools for the novice. Both provide keyword indexing o f gopher menus, allowing the user to pinpoint very spe­ cific information. Jughead searches only a spe­ cific group o f gopher menus, and usually pro­ vides better, faster results. Veronica casts the w idest p o ssible net. Many gop hers allow Veronica searches; the best site for Jughead is at Washington and Lee University. A ccess: Gopher “liberty.uc.wlu.edu” /finding gopher resources/search high-level gopher menus by jughead. The Washington and Lee site is a very popular one and it is often difficult to connect directly to it. Sometimes accessing it through another site, such as U.C. Santa Cruz, works best. A ccess: Gopher “scilibx.ucsc.edu” /the world/other internet gop her servers/ jughead. In order to make a comprehensive search o f the Internet, the user must search Archie. Archie indexes the vast information residing at ftp sites around the globe. You can telnet to Archie sites at a variety of locations or submit requests by e-mail. In either case, Archie re­ quires specific commands. ■ http://gopher.econ S ep tem b er 1 9 9 4 / 4 7 9