Guides: ECB 311: Intermediate Microeconomics: Data Points

Websites

GENERAL

Bureau of Economic Analysis
BEA produces economic accounts statistics that enable government and business decision-makers, researchers, and the American public to follow and understand the performance of the Nation's economy.
FRED Economic Data
Download, graph, and track 527,000 US and international time series from 87 sources.
International Monetary Fund
Finance data back to 1948 and other datasets.
The World Bank
World Bank Open Data provides free and open access to global development data.

UNITED STATES DEMOGRAPHICS

U.S. Census Data Exploration Platform
The Census Bureau's new data exploration platform provides a search interfacing for finding quality data about the nation's people and economy.

UNITED STATE WAGES

Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor is the principal Federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy.

AGRICULTURE

USDA Economic Research Service: Data Products
Mission of USDA's Economic Research Service is to anticipate trends and emerging issues in agriculture, food, the environment, and rural America and to conduct high-quality, objective economic research to inform and enhance public and private decision making. ERS's suite of data products encompasses estimates, forecasts, and economic and statistical indicators.

ENERGY DATA

International Energy Agency
The IEA works to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for its 29 member countries and beyond.
U.S. Department of Energy
Mission is to create and sustain American leadership in the transition to a global clean energy economy. Its vision is a strong and prosperous America powered by clean, affordable, and secure energy.
U.S. Energy Information Administration
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) collects, analyzes, and disseminates independent and impartial energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment.

THINK TANKS

Brookings
Brookings is a nonprofit public policy organization that conducts in-depth research that leads to new ideas for solving problems facing society at the local, national and global level.
Pew Research Center
Tracks key national, political, economic and demographic trends over time.
Urban Institute
Shapes decisions and offers solutions through economic and social policy research.

STATISTICS
Library databases providing statistics data.

Statista This link opens in a new window
Statistics portal integrating statistics and other quantitative data on over 80,000 topics including media, business, finance, politics, and more.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a great starting place for initial research. Unlike a regular Google search, Google Scholar attempts to connect you with more "academic" content then information typically found on the web.

As with any web searching important evaluation work will still need to be done on each of the resources you are looking at. Use the following criteria to evaluation the information from Google Scholar or other web searches.

AUTHORSHIP
Websites can be produced by individuals or organizations.
Reputable websites will have authorship information easily visible,
including both the authors' names and credentials.
ACCURACY
To use information in your research it must be judged accurate and
verifiable before use.
CURRENCY
Look for the publication date of the website, frequent updates, and
dates for specific articles.
CONTENT
Does the information provided by the website meet your research need?
PURPOSE
A website's purpose is the reason it was created. This should be very clear.
Note that some websites might present opinions as facts but they are
actually attempting to sell a product or persuade you.

Evaluation Web Resources
Use this information sheet for criteria to look for in evaluating web articles. Including a list of evaluation questions.

Accessing Articles from the Web

Watch this short video for how to get access to articles you find from a web search like Google Scholar. Remember, never pay for content, the library can get it for you!

Interlibrary Loan: Article & Book Request
Can't find the article or book you're looking for at Gordon? Fill out the Interlibrary Loan request form and we'll track the article or book down for you!