Blue Collar to Gold Collar

A rapidly expanding number of Web sites are devoted to economic data on a host of specific subjects and for nearly all countries and regions of the world. The problem is not in finding sites to visit, but discovering those of most use for the specific questions you pose or data you seek. For the more developed industrial and post-industrial economies and topics, good starting points are home pages of national and international statistical and economic organizations. For all general topical searches and for sites providing guides and connections to the subdivisions of the general field of economics and research agencies in them, comprehensive libraries of agencies and linkages may be most helpful.

On the international scene, The World Bank, encountered in the last chapter, is a primary resource for country studies and regional and international statistics dealing with the world's economies. From its home page at www.worldbank.org one can browse abstracts of books and articles published by the bank as separate titles or in its various journals; read and download executive summaries of major bank publications including its World Development Report, World Development Indicators, and others; and find links to the bank's "partners and related websites."

The United Nations has many agencies concerned with economic matters, including development, regional economic outlooks, trade, and the like. Its Official Web Site Locator provides a catalog of UN system websites, a searching program, and a guide and links to "other international organizations," some of which also are economy-related: www.unsystem.org/

The website maintained by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development at www.oecd.org provides access to publications and documents produced by the OECD. If you want more direct connection to "Other Statistical Sources" go directly to www.oecd.org/std/others.htm with its many links to OECD and non-OECD countries and leading international organizations.

The European Union is just one of several regional economic alliances maintaining websites with access to statistical and text data. Its Statistical Office home page provides entry to a selection of on-line statistical publications and indicators, press releases, catalogs, and links to other related agencies. View it at http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/eurostat/eurostat.html

On the Anglo American scene, United States government agencies with responsibilities in the areas of secondary and tertiary activities include:

The U.S. Department of Commerce, charged with promoting American business, manufacturing, and trade. Its home page connects to the websites of its constituent agencies: http://www.doc.gov/ and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, whose website contains economic data, including unemployment rates, worker productivity, employment surveys, and statistical summaries of BLS timeseries data: http://stats.bls.gov/.

The White House Economic Statistics Briefing Room at www.whitehouse.gov/fsbr/esbr.html has pages of color charts, many with accompanying tables, on income, commodity production and prices, personal income, and similar topics. Although the time spans of the different topical series vary greatly, the information that is provided is timely and selected from a number of Federal agencies. The site links to the FEDSTATS home page.

The National Bureau of Economic Research, America's leading economic research institute, publishes new academic papers on its web site and many available for downloading-before they appear in printed journals. Also included are some interesting economic databases and information about the Bureau itself. Search it at www.nber.org/.

In many ways more useful than United States websites is that of Industry Canada, the federal government's principal agency concerned with national economic matters. Its home page categorizes its interests and information under such headings as "economy and trade," "industry sectors," and the like. Particularly helpful is the link to "Strategies," Industry Canada's business information site that, in turn, gives links to other nonfederal governmental pages and non-Canadian sites worldwide.

Industry Canada: http://info.ic.gc.ca/; Strategis: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/

For many economic geographers, one of the most useful and informative worldwide and regional periodical reviews of matters of general economic interest is The Economist. Its web site at www.economist.com gives access to the current issue, to an archive of stories published within the past few years, to book reviews, and more.

Perhaps the most comprehensive website for more general "economic"-as opposed to "economic geographic"-browsing is Resources for Economists on the Internet, sponsored by the American Economic Association and produced by Bill Goffe of the University of Southern Mississippi. With more than 30 categories in its index and scores of links to their entries, Resources is easy to use, as are most of the pages it cites:

http://rfe.wustl.edu/.

A rather less weighty website is that of About.com at www.economics.about.com. Designed for a more general audience, home page is a useful starting point in locating other economic resources on the web through an extensive list of categorized NetLinks. The site also hosts discussions on a variety of current topics and has a message board and chat rooms.