Research and Course Guides: Econ 251 Intro to Macroeconomics Sources: Getting Started

Introduction

This guide will lead you to appropriate resources for a country analysis project.

Reports & Statistical Data Sources

Statista This link opens in a new window
Look specifically in the top menu selections for Country Reports and Country Outlooks for nice statistical summaries.

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) Country Data
FRED collects data on many indicators for individual countries; browse here by country or use the search box.

Passport This link opens in a new window
Passport GMID includes research reports and statistics on countries. Use the Search Statistics or Find Analysis functions and search by country.
OECD Economics iLibrary This link opens in a new window
OECD iLibrary is the online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Contains analytical reports and statistical data.

Eurostat
Detailed statistics on the European Union and candidate countries.
World Bank Data portal
Downloadable data by country.
International Data Base
(IDB) U.S. Census Bureau.
Statistical tables of demographic and socioeconomic data for 227 countries and areas of the world.
UN Data
The main statistical data search page for the United Nations.

International Financial Statistics Online This link opens in a new window
IFS is a standard source of economic and financial data for most countries of the world. Includes many macroeconomic indicators including prices/inflation, employment, and national income & product accounts (GDP).

Country Overviews & Economic Studies

Each of the sources listed in this box will give you a sizeable overview of a country's economic environment. Start with these to get a general view of the country's situation; additionally, these overviews may help answer many of the assignment's questions directly.

Passport This link opens in a new window
Search for: PEST Analysis Belgium, for example; PEST stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological Analysis. Read or download, then use the "Related" dropdowns at left to find additional reports.

CIA World Factbook
Produced by the CIA, each country's profile includes such information as demographics, political, economic, and geographic data.
OECD Economic Surveys
Comprehensive economic analyses of OECD member and non-member countries

Political Handbook of the World Online Edition This link opens in a new window
Researchers will find this resource useful for comprehensive country profiles, chronicles of national history, government, and political parties, as well as information on intergovernmental organizations.
Political Risk Yearbook This link opens in a new window
Provides 45-65 page overviews of the history, economy, politics, and risk forecasts for 100 countries. It provides 10 years of economic data, with description and analysis of the political players and situation written by experts.

World Bank Countries & Regions
Includes country profiles, statistics, and general reports.
Statesman's Yearbook
An annual look at the politics, culture, and economies of the world. Browse or search within each annual volume.
Library of Congress Country Studies
Each Country Study includes information on the economic, political, and social system of a particular country. Also discussed are the people, their beliefs and values, and their interpersonal relationships. Covers 101 countries and regions.

Palgraves

Palgrave's Dictionary of Economics Online

Need help choosing research topics?
Dying to calculate the price elasticity of demand?
Can't remember what heteroscedasticity means?
It's all here...

New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online This link opens in a new window
Palgraves is the premier subject encyclopedia for the field. You will find it useful for getting definitive explanations of economic concepts, browsing for research paper topic selection, and locating additional sources for further reading from the article bibliographies. Covers all aspects of the field, including micro and macroeconomics, economic history, econometrics, international, urban, financial, monetary, public, and theoretical economics.

LibrarySearch

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to focus your search, use the limits on the left side of the result page: select a Resource Type filter, pick a date range, etc. Hit the Newspaper Search button to limit to those.
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More Sources

Country Information
by Marianne Hageman Last Updated Jan 18, 2024 33 views this year

Finding news & magazine articles

ProQuest US Newsstream, including Star Tribune This link opens in a new window
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US Newsstream enables users to search current U.S. news content and archives back to the 1980s; includes national and regional news sources like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Star Tribune, etc..
Factiva This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Factiva is a great source for finding up-to-the-minute news articles from publications around the world including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Financial Times among thousands of others; also contains many smaller market news sources, trade magazines, and journals. Limited to 6 simultaneous users.
If you use Factiva's Share>Within My Account feature to find links for emailing or to use in Canvas, that URL needs to be adjusted with a special code to connect it with our subscription. Copy that URL and paste it into our ProxyMe! widget to create the adjusted URL.
Economist This link opens in a new window
The Economist is an important and respected English-language newsweekly magazine. This link gives access to a university-wide website subscription that should give you access to the content without paywalls. Includes current and prior coverage back to 1997; see the separate Economist Historical Archive for coverage back to 1843.

The Economist Historical Archive
Coverage from 1843-2012.