Economic Data on the Web

Here are a few quick suggestions for some of the more useful sources of economic data and information on the Web.

International

• The World Bank is the single most important lender to developing countries, and is a good source for data and working papers.

• The Web page of the International Monetary Fund is also useful.

United States

• For a quick update on economic conditions, try the White House.

• The government's statistical bureaus are useful, particularly the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• The annual Economic Report of the President is an important source of data and of thinking on current economic issues.

Resources for Economists

• Start with Bill Goffe's Resources for Economists on the Internet.

• Then try the WebEc List of Economics Journals, which often links to publisher sites, and even to abstracts.

• Hal Varian's page has an enormous, and fascinating, list of useful sites (including ATT 800 numbers!), mainly in economics.

• There is also the list of working papers from the National Bureau for Economic Research, which is based in Cambridge

Other tips

I find that Google is the most effective search engine, at http://www.google.com . For a more scholarly version, try http://scholar.google.com .

Jonathan Haughton

Suffolk University, Boston, March 2005