Finding Information in Economics

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Finding Information in Economics

• Moorgate Library

2
Analyse Topic Type of Information

• Journal and trade articles
• Newspaper articles
• Facts / figures - statistics
• Government / EU legislation

3
Analyse Topic Location of Information

• Printed sources journals, reference books, text
  books, reports and statistics
• Electronic Library databases, electronic
  journals
• Web sites

4
Finding statistics printed

• National Statistics Guide to Official Statistics
• Unofficial statistics directory (in Q/R)

5
Finding statistics electronic

• http//www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/tsdintro.asp
  
• OECDhttp//www.oecd.org Mainly subscription but
  some freehttp//www.statistics.asp
• International Labour Officehttp//laborsta.ilo.or
  g/
• Datastream
• Statistics section in annexe on 3rd Floor

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Using statistics remember

• Units , , millions, 000s, etc.
• Index or values
• Constant / current prices
• Base year for indexes / constant prices
• e.g 1985 100
• Look at footnotes e.g series may be redefined
• Classification systems
• Ask for help

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Statistics (UK)

• Economic Trends Annual Supplement statistics
  also available on Statistics.gov and Datastream
• Note Statistics.gov does not always give example
  units. Useful to use the printed table for
  reference
• Also has articles
• For example, you could find statistics for the
  unemployment rate in the UK since the
  introduction of the National Minimum Wages Act
  1998

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Blue/Pink Book
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Statistics (UK)

• Labour Market Trends printed, and labour market
  statistics are on Statistics.gov
• More detailed statistics on unemployment rate,
  for example, by age and region
• Also articles
• The Low Pay Commission strategy for monitoring
  and evaluating the national minimum wage,
  December 2000 pg 549.
• Pay structures of the low-paid and the
  national minimum wage, March 1999, pg 129.

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Statistics (UK)

• New Earnings Survey
• For ExampleCompare the average earnings before
  the introduction of the minimum wage to after.

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Statistics (International)

• ILO Yearbook of Labour Statisticsprinted ILO
  statisticshttp//laborsta.ilo.org/
• For exampleCompare wages in different countries
  - those with a minimum wage and those without.

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Statistics (International)

• OECDprinted statistics selection of OECD
  publicationswww.sourceoecd.org all OECD
  publications plus a statistical database
• For exampleOECD Employment Outlook

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Statistics Datastream

• Online Database
• Economics information for most countries
• Information from international organisations eg
  IMF, OECD and from National Statistical Offices
• Can download into Excel format

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Finding journal articles Indexing and
abstracting services - for references

• Printed Journal of Economic Literature

• Electronic Zetoc
• IBSS

15
Finding journal articles full text articles

• Subject search Business Source Premier)
• JSTOR (archive)
• Science Direct

• Journal title search Millennium
• Electronic journals list on libraries
  website

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Research topic

• e.g
• The effect of the National Minimum Wage on the
  labour market in the UK

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Analyse topic keywords

• words to describe your topic
• synonyms
• plurals
• alternative spellings (American vs British)

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Analyse topic keywords

• National Minimum Wage / minimum wage / wage(s)
  / earnings
• labour market / employment / work force
• United Kingdom / UK

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Searching Techniques

• Are essential in enabling you to extract relevant
  information from the databases.
• Take the same search the effect of the national
  minimum wage on the labour market in the UK

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Identify the keywords

• Keywords are minimum wage/ labour market /
  United Kingdom
• Consider other keywords and variant spellings
• United Kingdom/UK
• labour market/labor market/employment
• minimum wage/wages

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Use link word AND

• narrows down a search
• looks for articles containing both keywords
• minimum wage AND United Kingdom

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Using AND
United Kingdom
Minimum wage
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Use Link word OR

• broadens a search
• looks for articles containing one or other or
  both keywords
• United Kingdom OR Britain
• Labour market OR Labor market OR employment

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Using OR
Labour market
Employment
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Using Link word NOT or AND NOT

• excludes terms from a search
• Employment AND minimum wage NOT Europe
• Labour market AND minimum wage AND NOT Europe

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Using NOT or AND NOT
Europe
Minimum wage
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Truncation ? or or !

• Allows searching for any words starting with that
  word stem
• With some databases, you can replace a letter
  within a word to account for variant spellings
• Replace (Wage OR Wages) with Wage / Wage?/Wage!
• Replace (Labour OR Labor) with Labo?r / Labor

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Final searchTopic Effect of the national
minimum wage on the labour market in the UK

• Minimum wage
• AND Labour market OR Employment
• AND NOT Europe
• Minimum wage
• AND Labour market OR Employment
• AND United Kingdom OR UK OR
  Britain

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Searching for journal articles

• Business Source Premier (Full Text)
• Jstor (many articles full text)
• Science Direct (Full Text)

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Sources of government information

• Government Expenditure Plans
• Government Web site www.ukonline.gov.uk
• Statistics http//www.statistics.gov.uk/statbas
  e/mainmenu.asp

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Newspaper sources

• Lexis Nexis Executive
• Full text international news
• updated daily
• Over 800 worldwide sources Financial Times, The
  Times, New York Times, India Today
• Printed newspaper collection (1 Week)

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Other useful sources

• Reference collection/Electronic reference
  collectionDictionaries, encyclopaedias,
  directories, Country reports
• Working PapersPublishing recent research often
  prior to journals
• European Documentation CentreEuropean Access
• World Wide Web

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Remote Access

• Most databases are available off-campus via
  Athense.g. Amadeus, Bankscope, Business Source
  Premier, Jstor, Lexis Nexis Executive, Science
  Direct
• Ask Non Athens usernames and passwords
• Or login to the catalogue and access them from
  there

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Finding information in economics

• Systems Services,
• Dawn Kinnersley
• Moorgate Library, City Campus
• Chris Lamb
• Holloway Road Library, North Campus