Economics 0115 | Winter/Spring 1997 |
Dr. Thomas McGahagan | 123 Krebs Hall |
Course Materials | News and Data | Gov't Sites | Topics | Useful Links |
---|---|---|---|---|
Syllabus | Data Sources | Executive | Labor Markets |
Lists of Links |
Intermediate | News | Congress | Money Markets |
Macro Classes |
Assignments and Notes | Libraries |
Federal Reserve |
World Economy |
UPJ Econ Department |
BEST MACRO WEB SITES |
Data are vital to macroeconomics; before the Web, it was difficult to
access current data. Now, it's easy. You will be expected to describe
the data contained in these sites on examinations; visit them often.
Three very useful guides for the data searcher are by
at Clark University,
The White House overview of current statistics;
has a good selection of the latest data. More extended data tables
can be found in the
Economic Report of the President
At the
Council of Economic Advisors
the current ERP can be searched by
keyword.
Each of the Fed regionals
also has a website; the three best are:
The Washington Post has the most attractive Web site
for general news;
other good news sites include the
New York Times
and the N and O Times
Ed Yardeni, an economist for Deutsche Bank, offers not
only his commentary on where the economy is going, but also a unique and
interesting series of macro graphs.
Other good sites for commentary are:
A French bank which offers some commentary in English on the US;
commentary on most other economies is in French.
gets my award for the best financial news, especially for
international news. For US markets, the choice would have been the
Wall Street Journal ; unfortunately, the
service now charges for access.
ACADEMIC
SITES
Primarily of use for intermediate and advanced students, but
beginners can browse with profit.
Johnathan Temple, of Nuffield College, Oxford has an
extraordinarily useful list of links to sites specializing in the
study of long-run economic growth.
Christopher Zimmerman at the University of Quebec at Montreal
has a list of connections to research on business cycles; generally rather
technical for beginners, but a great site.
has an index of
working papers
which are at the cutting edge of research
and a very interesting (but difficult to use without some practice)
set of long-run historical and international
data.
LABOR
MARKETS
One of the more attractively designed government sites.
For sites which are very useful in themselves and offer
excellent links to other labor sites, see:
MONEY and
CAPITAL
MARKETS
Offers links to a US and foreign financial markets.
Another good list of links is:
Ohio State Financial Links
The University of Göttingen maintains a list of links to
quite a number of US and world-wide banks.
Mark Bernkopf maintains links to foreign central banks as well
as to the Fed.
The Board of Governors of the Fed is responsible for monetary policy and keeps the statistics on the money supply.
See the Beige Book
or report on current economic conditions for insight into the FOMC's evaluation
of the economy.
with a graphical interface available from
Theodore Bos
a CPI calculator
and a quiz designed
for a high-school economics contest.
FISCAL
POLICY
The Treasury Department has the primary responsibility for fiscal
policy.
Responsible for preparing
The 1997 Budget
See the Citizen's Guide to the Budget for a brief overview.
INTERNATIONAL
The IMF is responsible for a good deal of international
lending to developed countries as well as developing countries; its
work frequently involves giving macroeconomic policy advice.
Until recently known as the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade , it acquired expanded powers along with its
new name in 1994. It is designed to provide a forum for trade negogiations
and to resolve trade disputes.
Lending by the World Bank is usually for long-term development
rather than for short-run crises; the most useful section here is the
" Topics in Development " which has very high-quality academic
papers on long-run growth and macro topics.
A club of the most developed countries; maintains a database of
international economic statistics, though access by the Web is limited.
further study.
The G-7 economic summit conferences have sometimes resulted in
the international coordination of macroeconomic policy. A useful guide to the
conferences is provided by the University of Toronto.
Official site of the European Community.
LINKS
by Ed Goffe is the most complete list of economic sites.
WebEc is another list of links;
it may even be easier to use than Goffe,
but broken links often don't seem to get fixed quickly.
The UPJ Economics department homepage offers access to
other economics links by subject, as well as to program and course descriptions
and faculty member homepages.
Send e-mail to Dr. McGahagan