January 2009
An economy of words

A new year always holds promise, but this year’s promise is a little bleak. We are inundated with messages of downward spiraling economic circumstances. Sure, we’re all aware that it’s happening, but what does it mean? Depression, bankruptcies, inflation, unemployment rates, recession — it’s all scary news with mysterious words. It can be difficult to understand how it will affect you, or how it fits into the big picture of our economic past, present and, perhaps most importantly, future.

At the UW Tacoma Library, we have lots of resources to help you decipher those cryptic economic terms and allow you to make some sense of it all. Here are some starting points, ranging from scholarly papers to the price of Big Macs around the world (only $1.30 in the Ukraine, secret sauce and all).

Encyclopedias, Dictionaries and Handbooks

• New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
• Oxford Reference Online: Economics & Business
• Elsevier Handbooks in Economics

Books, Articles & Working Papers

Books

• Search for books in the UW Libraries Worldcat Catalog, such as:
  • The ABCs of Political Economy: A Modern Approach by Robin Hahnel
  • Economics Explained: Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works and Where it's Going by Heilbroner
  • The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community by Stephen A. Marglin
  • Economics: A Very Short Introduction by Partha Dasgupta

Articles

• EconLit – Index to articles on economics
• PAIS International – Index to articles on politics, political science and public policy
• Academic Search Complete – Articles from general magazines and journals from all disciplines
• Business Source Complete – Articles from general business magazines and journals in business, finance and accounting.

Working Papers

• IDEAS: Economics and Finance Research — The largest bibliographic database dedicated to economics and available freely on the Internet. More than 550,000 items of research can be browsed or searched, and more than 450,000 can be downloaded in full text.
• Economics Research Network – Working paper series not freely available on the web.
• NBER Working Papers – Working papers from the National Bureau of Economic Research

Economics on the web

• Bureau of Labor Statistics — Information and data from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Includes statistics on employment and unemployment, prices and living conditions (consumer price index/CPI, producer price index/PPI and international price index)
• World economics based on the hamburger standard (Big Mac Index) — Big Mac prices, in local currency and in U.S. dollars, for a Big Mac. An alternative measure of purchasing power for more than countries.
• The Inflation Calculator — Input a dollar amount and select years between 1800 to 2007 and it will calculate the inflated or deflated value based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
• National Bureau of Economic Research — The National Bureau of Economic Research is a non-profit, non-partisan organization with a mission to promote greater understanding of how the economy works.

A few other links to try:

• Economic Policy Institute
• Institute for Fiscal Studies
• Workplace Explorer Washington
• Library of Economics and Liberty
• McKeever Institute of Economic Policy Analysis (MIEPA)
• U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
• What is a dollar worth? – Consumer Price Index Calculator

Tip of the month

Don’t feel intimidated by the experts you see on television and quoted in the newspapers. You have the tools to translate their esoteric explanations, right here at your UW Tacoma Library. Come and see us! Check out the hours and emails of all library staff.

Book Dirt is the inside scoop on the UW Tacoma Library and everything it has to offer provided by Carole Svensson, the Library's assistant director. Got an idea for a book to feature in Book Dirt? E-mail Carole at svensson@u.washington.edu.