Online Research in Economics

Ecommunics acts as a virtual research community in the field of economics. The mission of the site is to keep users informed about newest publications and research in economics and to encourage early distribution of research results by publishing abstracts submitted by researchers themselves. The site has a database of research papers, which includes e.g. pre-prints and working papers. All papers have been reviewed by a group of economists before acceptance to the database. The papers have been divided into JEL categories and further into sub-categories, so that they can be browsed as well as searched. One must register to see the full-text of the papers, but the registration is free. Other features of the site include access to an online bookshop and an online software shop, newsletter service informing about new additions to the database, a job centre, and online discussion groups.

EconPapers is the part of RepEc that collects working papers in economics available on the Internet. There are over 150,000 downloadable working papers drawn from many hundreds of series from academics working in institutions from around the world. There are also over 250,000 downloadable journal articles, as well as smaller collections of books, book chapters, and software items. The database is continually increasing in size. Users can search for items of interest using a large number of search options or monitor the list of the latest arrivals.

This archive of the former site EconWPA.wustl.edu is a large collection of economics working papers. It is organised by JEL classifications with additional categories for Computer Programs, Data Sets, Risk and Insurance. In each sub-section there is a short list of related links. PDF files are available for between half and two-thirds of each section of papers.

Global Development Network (GDN) is "a global network of research and policy institutes working together to address the problems of national and regional development." Founded in 1999, GDN organises conferences, gives development awards, holds research competitions, runs research projects and has begun a data initiative enabling low income countries to access datasets. Partners in GDN include the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), International Monetary Fund, UNICEF and Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies. The Knowledge Base section of the site offers papers, researchers' details, CVs, and links to research. GDN is working on giving access to journals for low income countries, in conjunction with the British Library of Development Studies (BLDS), UK.

IDEAS is a huge bibliographic database of economics working papers and articles, that contains over 650,000 references and provides access to over half a million full text items. Users can browse by series, by JEL (Journal of Economic Literature) classification, by type of publication or search by keyword. It is part of RePEc (Research Papers in Economics), a large volunteer effort to enhance the free dissemination of research in Economics. IDEAS is based at the University of Connecticut but is a collaborative project involving many universities and economics academics.

This mixed collection of resources was produced by Swiss economist Christian Zimmerman, of the University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada. The pages link to several resources about quantitative macroeconomics and real business cycle (RBC) theory. Zimmerman explains that RBC theory is now also commonly called Stochastic Dynamic General Equilibrium (SDGE) theory, or Dynamic General Equilibrium (DGE). Resources listed include definitions of RBC, economics recruitment websites, a directory of quantitative macreconomists, and research centres.

This site contains material on macroeconomic policy issues produced by the RGE Monitor team headed by Professor Nouriel Roubini of the Stern School of Business, New York University. The site includes spotlights on topical issues, a global daily digest in various economic areas and highlights from working papers produced by other researchers. Information is also organised by geographical area or key topic area, such as global macroeconomics or finance and banking. Some of the content is freely available, however to access all of it users will need a subscription.

The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) website is primarily a searchable database of research abstracts and papers. The SSRN itself is made up of a group of social science based subject networks that include : accounting, classics, cognitive science, corporate governance, economics, english and american literature, entrepreneurship, information systems, philosophy, political science, and law. The SSRN maintains a large e-Library collection which contains full-text papers and abstracts. The SSRN also publishes a research paper series, plus it announces and delivers research papers for many research institutes, universities and professional organizations.

Compiled and managed by Dr. Gene Shackman, this website 'looks at long term, large scale changes in social, political and economic systems at the national and international levels. The principal aim is to present information that can be used to explain historical change, growth and development.' After an introductory summary by the author, various sections (Theory, Data, National Profiles, etc.) offer annotated lists of websites. The presentation is basic and easy to navigate; the collection of sites is useful and the annotation is brief but helpful. The site also contains a number of reports about global social, political, economic and demographic change.

VoxEU.org or VOX is a policy portal set up by the Centre for Economic Policy Research in conjunction with a consortium of national sites from Italy, France, Spain and the Netherlands. It aims to offer topical scholarly comment on economic and political policies, with articles that are original and where the analytical level is higher than a newspaper article, but more accessible than a formal academic journal. Topics covered include health economics; international finance, international trade; globalisation, international trade, development. It is possible to browse the site by topic, author or subject tag cloud. The site also features an extensive range of audio interviews with economists or VOX Talks, where researchers talk about their work. RSS feeds and email updates are also available. Registered users can comment on articles or submit their own.