LibGuides: Economics: Econ Data

Definitions

Books that explain various economic indicators and terms, and how the figures are determined.

Guide to Economic Indicators, 4th ed., by Norman Frumkin.
Perkins/Bostock Ref. HC103 .F9 2006
Focus on the U.S. federal statistical agencies and their methodology.
The Economist Guide to Economic Indicators: Making Sense of Economics, by Richard Stutely.
Call Numbers/Locations
An international perspective, focusing on the top 15 industrial economies.
Economic Indicators Handbook: Time Series, Conversions, Documentation. 1992-.
Perkins/Bostock Ref HB1 .E46 (older editions in Perkins stacks or in LSC)
O'Hara, Frederick M. Handbook of United States Economic and Financial Indicators. 2000.
[paper editions in Duke Libraries]

Statistical Methods

Collection and analysis methods differ from one government agency to another, so similarly labeled data may not actually be equivalent. This can especially be a problem when trying to cobble together long time series from multiple sources.

Consult the source's documentation, looking for anything about "methodology." The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes a Handbook of Methods (Also in paper: Perkins Ref. U.S. L 2.3:2490) detailing their statistical concepts, definitions, sources, methods, and procedures.

Broad topical coverage

ICPSR
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is a data archive of more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. When you create an account, identify yourself as an affiliate of Duke University to gain free access.
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- You need to create an account while running VPN (or be on campus) in order to download data. After you create an account, you can access the service from outside of VPN.
- Detailed data in standard statistical formats (SAS, Stata, SPSS, etc.).
- Thematic collections provide convenient topical access
- A bibliography that connects ICPSR data to publications
- The American Economic Association (AEA) archives the data used in its journals at ICPSR
IPUMS
Portal for US federal and international data in several areas, including census, the US Current Population Survey, health, and education. Includes extraction and aggregation tools to gather data from public use microdata samples.
NBER Data Archive
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) provides these public use datasets on a variety of economic, policy, and social science topics, including labor and compensation, trade, health, vital statistics, education, and more. Data are typically provided in standard statistical formats such as STATA, SAS, and as CSV files.

Statista This link opens in a new window
Search for downloadable statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources on over 600 industries
ProQuest Statistical Insight This link opens in a new window
Search for data and statistics on population and demographics, business and financial activities, domestic and international trade, government programs, health, and politics

NASDAQ Data Link
Formerly, Quandl. A variety of financial information, much of it available without a paid subscription.
Resources for Economists - Data Resources
Portal to data sources from the American Economic Association (AEA).
Center for Data and Visualization Sciences Data Collections
Data collections purchased by the library's CDVS for use by the Duke community.

US Economic Data

Data.gov
Repository of empirical datasets from participating US federal agencies.

Statistical Abstract of the United States. 1878-2012. Proquest Statistical Abstract of the U.S. 2013-present
Perkins/Bostock Ref. Desk C 3.134:
Earlier editions also online, and older paper editions in Public Documents Stacks.
Published annually from 1878 to 2012 by the Bureau of the Census, and now by ProQuest. This is a standard national data book for United States statistics. The footnotes also provide a guide to other statistical sources.

Historical Statistics of the United States
Good for long statistical summarized time series relating to the USA, mostly derived from government data, most at the national or state level. Also in paper at Perkins/Bostock Ref. Desk HA202 .H57 2006.

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
A wealth of empirical data on the US economy. Lots of long time series. Also links to Alfred (ArchivaL Federal Reserve Economic Data) and other related collections of Fed data and publications.

NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research)
Datasets available from the NBER or otherwise associated with the NBER research program.

ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium For Political And Social Research) Organization at the University of Michigan that collects data from individual researchers, polling agencies, and and governmental and international agencies. Data is often in ASCII delimited format with documentation such as codebooks and sometimes auxiliary files to use in SPSS or SAS.

Derks, Scott, ed. The Value of a Dollar : Colonial Era to the Civil War, 1600-1865. 2005
Perkins/Bostock HB235.U6 V358 2005 or online
Derks, Scott and Tony Smith, eds. The Value of a Dollar: Prices and Incomes in the United States, 1860-2009. 4th ed., 2009.
Perkins/Bostock HB235.U6 V35 2009 or 3d ed. (2004) online
Divided into time periods which reflect major economic changes in America, then subdivided into following topics: historical snapshot, investments, selected income, standard jobs, food basket, selected prices, and standard prices.

ProQuest Statistical Insight
Indexes US government empirical data sources (as well as state, IGO, and privately published sources). Recent titles often contain the full text online or a link to it. Otherwise, material is in the Perkins Public Documents collection in the ASI microfiche collection or in paper.

Financial Data

Bloomberg Professional
Provides current and recent historical financial data on individual equities, stock market indices, fixed-income securities, currencies, commodities, futures, and foreign exchange for both international and domestic markets.
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It also provides news on worldwide financial markets and industries as well as economic data for the countries of the world. Additionally, it provides company profiles, company financial statements and filings and analysts' forecasts.

Global Financial Data This link opens in a new window
Find data on long time series of stock and bond indices and macroeconomic data
Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) This link opens in a new window
WRDS is a data portal providing access to more than 50 datasets from various providers covering finance, accounting, economics, management, marketing, banking, insurance, and more. Data formerly in DataStream is now found under the Thomson/Refinitiv section.
LSEG Workspace This link opens in a new window
LSEG Workspace contains market data, company financials and filings, earnings estimates, transaction data, analyst research, and more. LSEG Workspace replaces Thomson ONE and provides access to similar content.
Ford Library's Database Terms of Use apply to LSEG Workspace. You may retain data downloaded from LSEG Workspace for only as long as: 1) you are enrolled or employed at Duke; and 2) only as long as Duke maintains an active subscription to the product. Students may lose access at the end of the academic year in May.

Datastream Advance
The DataStream (aka DataStream Advance or DS Advance) client software from Refinitiv (fka Thomson Reuters) has been retired by the provider. Duke users may now access DataStream data via WRDS, or via the Refinitiv Workspace web site and application, available in mid-late February 2022.

Economics: Econ Data

Definitions

Statistical Methods

Broad topical coverage

US Economic Data

Financial Data

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