"Economics is an example of the 'over educated in pursuit of the unknowable.'" ~ attributed to Robert Solow
"We would love to have three laws that explain 99% of economic behavior; instead, we have about 99 laws that explain maybe 3% of economic behavior. Nevertheless, we like to talk as if we are dealing with physical phenomena." ~ Andrew Lo
"Probably three-quarters of the scholarly activity in economics is useless, will result in no understanding of the world. Maybe higher. It's tragic." ~ Deirdre N. McCloskey
"When two or three economists are gathered together, there are four or five opinions." ~ Dictionary of Economic Quotations
"Every year, 1.4 million undergraduates in the U.S. take an introductory economics course that teaches that only selfishness is rational." ~ Neva R. Goodwin
"In many countries, large numbers of economists have locked themselves up in an ivory tower and, as a result, whole areas have escaped their scrutiny. Their contribution to the problem of the development of the Third World, for instance, is rather modest when compared with the work of political scientists and sociologists. This is particularly true in the United States, Latin America, and India."
"So confounding have economic policy debates become in recent years that ordinary wage and salary earners find it difficult to protect their economic interests or even to fully comprehend where those interests lie. ... Contradictory economic rhetoric serves two political goals. First, half-baked but seductive arguments about finance enlist the general public in support of policies -- like tax breaks for stock investing, restrictive monetary policy, federal and international debt repayment -- mostly harmful to the public but beneficial to those with considerable wealth. ~ Ellen Frank
Economics is the study of scarcity. There is no free lunch. All human activities have an economic aspect based on scarcity of such resources as land, labor, raw materials, and machinery. There are also costs and benefits associated with distributing and consuming goods and services.
As an academic discipline, economics is the "systematic examination of production, exchange, and consumption." Thus, we speak of the economics of religion, art, or music. Economics is also the science of economizing, of allocating scarce resources to obtain the most benefit. As a social science, economics examines the relationship between human behavior and scarcity. Production involves price or cost.
For many former students of econ 101, economics is the study of demand and supply. Resources, production, and consumption is the cycle that creates wealth.
Economics may also be seen as the study of choice. All decisions have economic consequences. Thus, crime may be studied from an economic perspective. It may be rational to sell dope on the corner rather than work at McBurgers.
Economics is the science of wealth. How is wealth created, shared, and lost? Economics is concerned with optimizing the satisfaction received from spending scarce resources.
Obviously, social, political, and economic variables interact. Economics was once called political economy. Government and market forces constantly interact.
Classical economics attempted to derive laws that would explain and predict production, distribution and consumption ( a model). Noted economists include Jean Say, James Mill and David Ricardo.
Neoclassical economists focused on supply and demand and saw economic activity as the outcome of choice. The orientation is to microeconomics. Neoclassical economists assumed rationality, self-interest, and self-control. Noted economists include Alfred Marshall and Milton Friedman. Neoclassical theory holds that individuals, households, and companies rationally serve their best interests and that competition sorts out prices, wages, and the markets for goods and labor as the economy moves toward equilibrium. "In other words, the market economy and those who take care of themselves take care of one another" [Peter Monaghan].
John Maynard Keynes, in 1936, published The General Theory which became the first mainstream macro economic text. Lord Keynes was particularly concerned with full employment. Since (he believed) market forces will not guarantee full employment, government intervention is needed. The focus is a macro economic one.
Marxian economists believed that market forces were not equitable and that government should control the means of production to insure that the needs of all were met.
Academic economics began with Adam Smith's 1776 Wealth of Nations. Smith was as much a moral philosopher as he was an economist. Alfred Marshall's Principles of Economics,1890, established economics as an academic discipline separate from political economy. As a predictive science, economics today is in a position similar to that of the natural sciences in the 17th century. Economic matters have long been considered by ethical, political, philosophical, religious, and legal scholars.
Economics has long been popular with rulers because of its immediate utility. For many of these, economics is the art and science of extracting as much tax revenue from the population as possible without revolt.
Political economy was highly regarded by our founding fathers who appreciated commercial knowledge. In the U.S., economics was seen as more of a moral science than a scientific activity. For example, success in the business world was equated with fitness so that the "winners" were the best. This kind of Social Darwinism was popular with the business elite and remains popular today in notable business and political circles. In the 17th and early 18th Centuries, there was also considerable emphasis on practical economic counsel (Ben Franklin stuff). Through the 1860s, economics often focused on the promotion of manufacturing and the developing of transportation networks. Academic "study" was often a justification for existing policies or an attack on them. Protectionism would be a good example.
Following the Civil War, 1870-1890, economics became more scientific. It became more independent of establishment philosophies, policies, and notion. As the increasingly industrialized economy in the U.S. encountered problems such as urbanization, the labor movement, and monopolies, economists become more concerned with independent inquiry. As the Federal government expanded its economic role, there were more governmental employment opportunities. At the same time, more and better data was gathered and made available by government agencies. Such data sets allowed economists to be more quantitative in their orientation.
In 1885, the American Economic Association was established. By the end of the 1880s, economics had departmental status in a large number of U.S. universities, the professional association was growing in importance and there was a growing scholarly literature. By 1900, schools of business administration were established. These were well received and presented new opportunity for those with economic training. It also makes a clearer distinction between business and economics as related but different academic disciplines. Schools of business administration added to the prestige of a business career and made that career more attractive to the educated. More able people were attracted to business.
Between 1920 - 1975, the two Cambridge's dominated the scholarly literature and provided intellectual leadership. The Great Depression was a severe challenge to traditional economics. Conventional economic wisdom did not seem to work. Economists soon found a greater role in public policy. Research, literature and theory grew rapidly. There were major improvements in availability of data with increased government regulation and intervention in the economy. Macroeconomics, with its focus on economic growth and full employment became most popular. Research related to problems where data can be easily evaluated becomes popular. There was substantial improvement in our ability to measure economic phenomena, especially trends.
"Back in the 1940s, economics was basically a descriptive, institutional subject for a 'gentleman scholar.' The textbooks of the time were 'civilized' and discursive -- a melding of insights, numerical examples, and classifications [David Colander]."
Economists played a major policy role during the War. After, especially in the 1960s, traditional institutional-based economic history/thought was largely replaced by quantitative methods. With more data available, there was more emphasis on technique and model building. Statistical techniques and problem-solving becomes very important. The growth of large publicly available data sets and desktop computing makes it easy to do mediocre applied work. By the 1990s, emphasis had shifted to the application of analytical, mathematical tools to observable situations. Model building became the major focus of economics.
Contemporary economics is heavily based on the use of mathematical models to predict the nature and length of business cycles, impact of minimum wage on employment, etc. Many economists are concerned with applications of economic policy in a particular area such as finance, labor, agriculture, transportation, real estate, etc.. Economists advise business, insurance companies, banks, securities firms, industry and trade associations, labor unions, and government agencies. They frequently prepare detailed, quantitative reports.
Nearly 80% of all economists work in private industry. The Departments of State, Labor, Agriculture, and Commerce account for most federally employed economists. Government employment has decreased notably in the last few years. Economists are most likely to be found in a few large cities, especially New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Employment growth is predicted to be above average with most openings for replacement positions in the private sector. A strong background in economic theory, mathematics, statistics and econometrics is needed for successful employment. Opportunities best are best for PhD s.
Information plays a pivotal role in economic theory and practice because it reduces uncertainty and improves the quality of economic decisions. For example, consumers with good information about alternatives are likely to make the most prudent buying decisions. Many economic models make important, and perhaps unrealistic, assumptions about available information so that rational decisions may be made. However, often the needed information is not available and individuals make poor decisions because they were poorly informed.
Most economic data is produced as a by-product of routine business/industry activities and transactions in open markets as well as government regulation. Some of this information is publicly available. With the decline in government regulation and budget cuts in Federal statistical agencies, there is less publicly available data than before. Aggregate economic data by business or industry is particularly popular.
There are many sources for economic data. The most important include:
There are may different types of economic information. Here are a few examples arranged by category. Banking/currency information might include data on:
Company financial' s might include:
Economic indicators might include:
Insurance data might include data on:
Investment data might include:
Real Estate data [usually local or regional] might include:
Personal finance data might include:
Trade data might include:
The computer science notion of GIGO or garbage in, garbage out certainly applies to economic data. There are notable errors present in much economic data. Opportunities for serious error increase with aggregation. Published time series are often suspect, but there is usually no alternative. Since there is considerable demand for current data, preliminary data are released, and then adjusted later as more or better information becomes available. This is particularly important when examining large measures such as GNP where primary and later data may be quite different.
The quality of economic data varies notably. Typically, employment, commodity, stock price, and interest rate data is quite good. However, job vacancy, and industrial capacity data is often poor. Poor quality data will make prediction of future events based on the past much more difficult.
Almost always, data collection depends on individuals in particular organizations to complete forms. Data on those forms may be in error because of
While falsification is identified in some financial data, usually while an investigation of some sort is under way, error and ignorance probably accounts for most of the "dirty" data.
User demand for current information is a continual problem because of the time lag involved in data gathering, analysis, interpretation, and publication. With reductions in funding for government agencies, this time lag is likely to be worse in the future.
Sampling is common. Users must understand how the sample was drawn and the liabilities and assets associated with that process if they are to place the data in a proper context.
While ratings change from year to year, these would be the leading institutions during a typical year:
There has been a substantial increase in number of new doctorates awarded in the last few years.
In contrast with the other social sciences, trade publications are important because much research and policy analysis is done outside academe. Working papers are also important.There is considerable interaction between those in the field and those in the academy. In particular, periodicals are important sources for information about economic indicators and economic policy issues. Government information, increasingly on agency websites, is a critical source. The Federal Reserve Bank websites serve as a good example.
All economic forecasts begin with economic data. The more reliable the data, the better the analysis and the conclusions. Different countries and different times may see notable differences in how data is gathered, definitions, base years, margins of error, and data collected. Some government economic data is incomplete or is manipulated to make the economy seem better than it is. Some data is notable out of date. In the U.S, funding for economic data collection and analysis has been reduced in the past few years.
Traditional economic metrics may be inadequate. For example, data may not reflect the economic impact of the Internet or of Globalization. The move from a manufacturing to a service economy may not be properly weighed.
For whatever reason, there has been a dramatic decline in the number of undergraduate students majoring in economics. In fact, there has been a decline of nearly 60 percent in the last fifty years with a sharp decline in the 1990s. Some of these students have instead gone into business. Still, this lack of undergraduate interest is likely to have a notable impact on the field in the future. It is interesting that some studies find that student evaluation for those who teach economics is lower than that for those who teach in other disciplines. Perhaps, there is too much "chalk-and-talk."
Historically, economists treated economic variables in a vacuum ["other things being equal"]. With the exception of business administration and the traditional link to political science (political economy), relations with other SS disciplines have been weak. Because economics has more theories, models, laws, and principles than the other SS disciplines, economists may see other SS disciplines as undeveloped. Too, economics is more objective, has more empirical analysis,and is more data oriented so it better fits the natural science model.
Economists have not benefited from insights from other SS disciplines because of their insularity. The increasing Americanization of the discipline may also be a concern. U.S. periodicals tend to cite U.S. and British sources. Agricultural economics is often found in colleges of agriculture rather than in the economics department. In smaller academic institutions, economists may be found in the business college or department.
Political economy is a good example of a growing interdisciplinary area neglected by economics. Political economy is a substantial area of political science and several economists have focused on this research area. Economic history is another area somewhat neglected by economists, but receiving more attention from history.
Critics suggest that increased emphasis on mathematical models has not yet increased our understanding of the economy and has pushed economics further away from the other social sciences.
However, two interesting new developments in economic study do take advantage of insights from other social science disciplines. Game theory has been applied to several aspects of economics and behavioral economics [why and how people do not act rationally] has recently become popular.
Often compared to weather forecasters, economists need to work on predicting the future. Over the past 25 years, economic forecasters have missed four of the past five recessions. Academic economists believe that their macro economic models should allow them to make predictions about the future path of the economy just as physicists make predictions about the behavior of subatomic particles. That has yet to happen.
Forecasting the future economic situation is rather like weather forecasting was years ago. Given the large number of variables at work and the fact that some may be chaotic, it seems unlikely that economic forecasting will ever be as reliable as weather forecasting.
In contrast to most other social sciences, many economists practice outside the academy. Government agencies, not for profit organizations, for profit organizations (proprietary), Trade associations, consulting firms, investment firms and analysts, and banks employ large numbers of economists. This has an impact on information availability since academics normally share their research in a public place as do most government economists. Many other employers limit access to economic information.
Economics is a mature discipline, although finance appears to be growing while interest in economic history is declining. There appear to more and better opportunities outside academe than in it.
While all social sciences have some difficult (for the lay person) jargon or research methods, economics is probably the worst since the language is so divorced from everyday language. Too, the substantial use of numbers, data sets, adds to the complexity of the language. Many Americans are not entirely comfortable with numbers, especially complex ones. Today, economics is clearly a mathematical discipline somewhat like physics. There is little visible linkage between what economists do and what ordinary people care about. Economists who do theoretical and mathematical work receive praise and prestige. Periodicals that publish theoretical/mathematical work tend to be higher ranked. Applied economists tend to be at the bottom of the sub discipline rankings.
Economically unwise policies are politically popular. Most people prefer the "free lunch." An economist can almost always be found to endorse and find data to support a particular desired end. Experts frequently disagree on both the cause and the best solution for economic problems. The impact of an increase in the minimum wage on employment is a good example of this.
Some countries have found that expert, objective economic advice has led to policies that have not worked and were harmful. With government actively involved in gathering, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting economic data, there is the temptation to use data to make the government and its policies look good. That has NOT been the case in the U.S. where the civil service has been reasonably objective, but it remains a serious problem in many foreign countries where economic data remains suspect.
For lay people, especially politicians, economics involved a variety of ideological issues, for example, the moral aspects of capitalism or the evil of socialism. Private property, economic regulation, and taxation are issues that generate strong public responses. Yet economic policy and economic history receive relatively little attention in the academy.
In developing models of the economy, important variables may be ignored. Societal consequences of polices are ignored or overlooked. Unrealistic assumptions are made. For example, economics assumes that financial decisions are rationale and based upon access to needed information.
There have also been documented charges that economists often misuse [not intentionally] statistical significance so that findings and conclusions are in error.
A fascination with "blackboard economics" or "endless thinking about imaginary economies that don't ever have anything to do with the world [Deirdre McCloskey]."
Economics requires considerable mathematical competence, especially in modeling complex economic problems. Some argue that economics is "indulgently theoretical and mathematical." This makes it especially difficult for the lay person to really understand what is going on. While popularizations frequently appear in the mass media and on the web, they must simplify and sometimes that leads to distortions and misunderstanding.
Economics receives little thoughtful attention in the typical K12 curriculum even though about one-half of high school students take a required or elective economics course. Most lay people have little background or understanding of economic principles. What has been done has often emphasized what's good about capitalism and why it triumphed and how to be a "good" consumer. While many college graduates may have been exposed to a one semester course in economics, they still tend to have a simple and sometimes negative attitude toward the subject (boring, mechanical, not at all intuitive).
Economics deals with scarcity and not just Malthus' concern about population growth out striping available resources. Economic news is difficult to understand and often gloomy. For example, why has the stock market collapsed? Why do stock brokers rejoice when layoffs are high?
The desire to make rational decisions places considerable emphasis on data collection, manipulation, analysis, and interpretation by experts. The rational decision requires access to the right information at the right time. How many decision-makers have access to that information? How many want to hear information that may conflict with their beliefs? Too, there is always the question of how rational are such decisions as the purchase of a SUV or a mega home theater system.
The monetary economist may be ignorant of recent developments in international trade theory. The lack of synthesis and integration of theory from the various sub disciplines remains a serious problem. The decline of interest in scholarly economic periodicals that cover the breadth of the discipline means that economists often seem to have little in common or little knowledge of developments in adjacent areas. Some critics suggest that there is too much emphasis on macro-economics and not enough attention on individual economic behavior.
"The Internet has made it easier for users to gain access to banks of data, and most desktops have tools that permit manipulation of downloaded data." The fact that complex and current data goes directly to the analysts or the scholar's desk has had considerable impact on the nature of economic research as well as the role of the information agency. "Access to economic forecasts, historical data, and discussion of policy issues has never been easier." The downside is that many who have access to the data may not understand how to use it or understand what it means. Users may need instruction in how to use data and how to select it. This has some impact on the nature of reference service.
About 58 percent of scholarly economists publish but once and only 12 percent of the authors contribute more than 5 times in their professional lifetime. Leading authors are likely to have degrees from Harvard, MIT, Chicago, Yale and Johns Hopkins. More than half of the top published scholars come from the first three schools. There is a trend to more multiple authored papers, especially among more experienced researchers.
On average, it takes about two years for an article to be accepted for publication because an emphasis on more required revisions as well as slower refereeing and editing.
Economists tend to be data hungry and require large sets of numeric data for their work. Needed data may not be available or may be incomplete or dated. Much Federal government generated statistical data is being collected less frequently. Still, there is enough data so that users often need considerable time to analyze, interpret, and announce new findings and conclusions. The newest data is always needed, especially when investment decisions or major government policy decisions are at issue. Time really is money. Still, more machine-readable data is available today than ever before.
Barbie Kelser suggests that these considerations must be weighed before selecting an economic database:
Well-known forecasting groups include Global Insight, Datastream, Consensus Economics, Oxford Analytica, Oxford Economic Forecasting, the Economist Intelligence Unit [found in the UT Libraries portal].
As mentioned above, there are growing concerns about the quality and currency of the numbers. Many governments, including our own, spend too little money on statistical services. Unlike such countries as Canada, the U.S. does not have a centralized statistical service. Private and government statistics are notably decentralized. No one brings it all together to identify and remedy gaps and overlap. Although now changing, traditionally service industries have received much less attention than manufacturing. New products/services are not well measured, especially their value and pricing. A time lag in data of two to three years is common. Surveys need to be conducted more frequently. Numbers may be revised later as better data becomes available. Definitions may change and that upsets trend analysis. Calculations may change as in recent revisions in the Consumer Price Index. There is a continuing trade-off between current data and accurate data. Many government agencies lack adequate access to current information technology.
Perhaps the most notable economic information is found in the economic indicators. They are in high demand and receive considerable media attention. These indicators illuminate current economic conditions and suggest future prospects. Data used comes from public and private agencies/organizations. The Leading economic indicators anticipate movement in the economy (6 - 9 months). One example is the average weekly hours of production workers. Another would be the index of new housing starts. Coincident indicators coincide with the current economy. One example is personal income less transfer payments. Lagging indicators follow the economy. An example is the average prime rate charged by banks. With the move to more of a service economy, traditional economic indicators have been less useful.
Indexing plays an important role in the economic literature and information professionals need to understand it. "An index number is a percentage of some base selected to serve as the standard for comparison, usually over time." Thus, if 1980 = 100 and 1990 = 180, there has been an 80 percent increase over the decade. It is always important to note the base year. A change in the base year will have an immediate impact on the analysis.
Notable indexes include the
The CPI is the most visible measure of inflation. The Index is a "measure of the average change in prices paid by urban consumers for a fixed market basket of goods and services." Prices are sampled in about 80 urban areas. The weights used are based upon surveys of typical consumer and family expenditures and these change over time.
The PPI measures change in producer prices for commodities, consumer goods, and capital equipment.
Given the emphasis on large data sets, Federal government information is extremely important. For those economists looking at the global economy or comparing national economic performance, national economic information from other countries, especially those in Europe, is important. The laws and regulations that control economic behavior typically require the gathering and sharing of data.
Major U.S. statistical agencies with a focus on economics include:
Increasingly, collections of digital information may be downloaded from a FTP server or web site. It is relatively easy to move data into spreadsheet or statistical software for analysis unless the data is in a PDF file. It is easier than before for individuals to analyze institutional gathered data in their office. This should encourage replication.
About 80 percent of the economics literature is from economics. There is little subject dispersion. Borrowing is mostly from business, law, and political science. Political science is the only SS discipline likely to be heavily borrowed from.
The American Economic Review remains the flagship publication. It is published quarterly with articles and brief communications on a variety of economic topics. The "American" in the title refers to the name of the Association and NOT the subject focus of the periodical.
The most popular research and teaching areas as typically seen in the periodical literature:
The Journal of Economic Literature is a quarterly periodical of survey and review articles, abstracts of articles from foreign and domestic periodicals, classed lists of new books and book reviews. It is available on CD-ROM or in hard copy. It is also included in EconLit.
EconLit with Full Text is the American Economic Association's digital bibliographic database enhanced and delivered by EBSCO. It is the major source for finding scholarly economic information. EconLit is an expanded form of the Journal of Economic Literature. It indexes periodicals, books, and dissertations as well as indexing collective volumes from the Index of Economic Articles and the full text of JEL book reviews. Abstracts of Working Papers in Economics are also now included. More than 600 periodicals are covered and about 600 collective volumes each year. Dissertation titles are indexed. Records "contain basic bibliographic data plus subject descriptors, geographic descriptors, and author affiliations. Each year, about 10,000 periodical citations and abstracts, 7,000 collective volume citations, 1800 book abstracts, 900 dissertation citations, 1000 working paper abstracts, and 200 book reviews are added. About 90 percent of the references are to English-language works. Most non-English articles include English abstracts.
EconLit is available from First Search, Ovid, and SilverPlatter. The Ovid version may be the best.
EconPapers, a free collaborative source, is an excellent source for the working papers so important in economics. It also includes journal articles, books, book chapters, and some computer programs. Most working papers are linked for immediate free access. Reviewers noted that this is an impressive implementation of the Research Papers in Economics database.
EconLit and the Journal of Economic Literature use the AEA classification system. There are 19 major classes:
Each major class has two to nine sub classes underneath. For example, "general economics and teaching" is divided into "general economics" and "teaching economics" classes. Familiarity with the AEA classes will make searching easier and more effective.
Thomson Gale has issued The Making of the Modern Economy: the Goldsmiths'--Kress Library of Economic Literature 1450 -- 1850. Includes economics broadly defined with coverage of 61,000 books and 466 serials.
House periodicals are periodicals issued by a firm to
These vary notably in quality and utility. House periodicals from major banks, stock brokerages, investment firms, and government agencies can be extremely useful. Those issued by the regional Federal Reserve Banks tend to be extremely well-done. Some periodicals done by for-profit firms are a curious mixture of advertisement, puffery, and helpful analysis and display of numeric data and conclusions. Increasingly, articles from house periodicals are available without charge from a host web site. In other cases, a letter head request is required. In some cases, subscriptions are free or at low cost.
While the rejection rate for some economics periodicals is high, many newer specialized titles are available for authors seeking publication. The number of published papers has been growing at about 5 percent per year. Economics literature appears to be growing faster than that of most other social science disciplines. The average published paper is rarely cited. Few papers were cited as much as 3 times per year.
Working papers are the informal, pre-publication draft of research papers usually distributed in a series by an university department, research institute, or government agency. About 1/3 of these are never published. Of those published, about 94 percent are published within 3 years. Few libraries select, organize or preserve working papers. However, they contain useful information for the serious researcher.
Useful depositories on the net make these sources more important and more often used. It is much more cost effective to use a central source than to attempt to acquire and provide access to working papers locally.
There is considerable overlap between business and economic searching, especially on industry information. Lack of specificity remains a problem, for example searching for information on "business climate."
While there is considerable variation by specialty, access to current and historical data sets are especially important along with information on how the data was collected, analyzed and interpreted. Data may be domestic, foreign, or international. Data from government organizations will be heavily used. Proprietary data sets, analyses, and interpretations will be used when they are affordable and available for academic use.
Clearly, government information -- even though there are often time lags -- is of crucial importance. The Economic Census is one good example and an opportunity for instruction to undergraduate and some graduate students. Another essential source are the various Federal Reserve Banks, beginning with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Note especially the links to monetary policy, economic research and data, and publications and education resources.
Access to the scholarly literature, including working papers, continues to be important. It appears that most economists in the U.S. are not prepared to read scholarly literature in a foreign language.
There will also be interest in literature to support computer modeling of large, complex data sets.
These researchers will use many of the same sources as the academic, but may also have access to proprietary data sets, analyses, and interpretations generated by the firm. Dialog, for example, provides access to expensive databases that provide unique content for the well supported economist.
College teaching may be heavily text book based. There is interest in synthetic treatments of current issues with some interest in economic history and thought. Methodology is a topic of continuing interest, but on a less sophisticated level than for the academic researcher.
Here the emphasis is on clear, popular treatments of basic issues. Demonstrations of practical economics at work continue to interest. Home economics and home financial management are topical issues and problems.
A large number of Americans own stock or invest in mutual funds. There is increasing exposure to economic statistics in print, cable TV, network TV, and the WWW. Investment information, the state of the economy and predictions about the future that are clear and easy to understand are in demand. Personal economics is more popular than before: investing for college, investing for retirement, and how to live on your salary and reduce your debt. Linkage between economic change and employment will interest many.
Many Americans also realize that their employment and life style will be affected by economic indicators. For example, substantial increases in the cost of petroleum products leads to financial problems for many consumers such as the heat the house or buy the meds scenario. Poor economic indicators and analysts urging to increase profits may lead to down-sizing.
Curricular related material on how an economy works may be in demand to support local instruction. There may be interest in intelligent consumption. How to pay for college/graduate school will interest some. The economic aspects of marriage and family may interest others, especially if in the local home economics curriculum. Career materials linked to economic change will interest.
Define "economics" and "business." Distinguish between the type of information sources found in an economics collection and those found in a business collection. Consider the overlap between "personal business" and "personal economics."
Where does economic data and information come from? Any problems?
What steps are appropriate in working with users to insure that they understand the nature of the economic information they seek (statistics, definitions, sampling)?
Based upon your experience, what sort of economic information might be popular in a medium-sized public library? In a school library media center?
Economics and psychology are supposed to be the most scientific of the social science disciplines. How scientific is economics? What difference does that make?
What are economic indicators? Why are they important?
Last major revision: August 2007.
