Bill Goffe
Department of Economics and International Business
University of Southern Mississippi
Hattiesburg, MS 39406
(601) 266-4484 (office)
(601) 266-4920 (fax)
Version 6.0
May 18, 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Working with Bob Parks and Hal Varian, I'll be converting this into a hypertext html document later this summer. If you have any comments, or would like a copy of it, please contact me. Experienced Internet users will be glad to know that I'll move to standard URLs at that time.
This document, which is updated every two months or so, and its successors, can be found in several places. They include, via ftp, rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/sci.econ.research/econ-resources-faq and, via gopher, at the Economics Working Paper Archive at Washington University at St. Louis and the Economics Gopher at Sam Houston State University (both are described below). Finally, I'd be happy to send it out via email to all who request it.This is my sixth stab at this document. I am very interested in any corrections, suggestions, omissions, and hints anyone might have. An abridged version will be appearing in the summer issue of The Journal of Economic Perspectives summer along with a description of Internet tools. Thus, any suggestions you might have will reach a large audience.
While relatively few economists use the Internet, there is a surprising amount of very useful information on it. For instance, there are two very extensive sets of U.S. macro data, detailed data from the Fed and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a bibliography of some 35,000 working papers in economics, household surveys from 21 countries, numerous interactive electronic markets, more than 50 mailing lists and two Usenet newsgroups.
I apologize for any crosslistings. However, it appears that economists use many different lists, so to reach the broadest audience, crosspostings are unavoidable.
Some of the information is not as complete as I would wish. Further, some of the resources I have not investigated thoroughly and I cannot vouch for them. While I catalog many mailing lists, I have little information about the volume and types of discussions.
Most of the resources I was able to find deal with the United States. Leads on information on other countries would be appreciated.
I would like to acknowledge many people who have commented and made suggestions on previous versions of this document. Without their help, there would be fewer resources listed and the existing descriptions would be more difficult to read. In particular, I would like to thank Forrest Smith for suggesting I undertake this project, and Thomas Krichel, George D. Greenwade and Bob Parks for constant suggestions. More generally, I have received help from Mona Andersen, Kit Baum, Larry Blume, Chris Birchenhall, Eric Branckaert, Francis Buckley, Christian Burks, Nauro Campos, David Chester, Alex Deacon, Karen Ewens, Daniel Feenberg, Gary Ferrier, Matthew Flynn, Joe Friedman, James R. Garven, Gerhard Gonter, Seth Greenblatt, Dave Hartland, Christian Helmenstein, Doug Henwood, Joe Hirschburg, Brad Humphreys, Prue Hyman, Alan G. Isaac, Peter M. Joftis, Nicholas Karatjas, Grace Katagiri, Ray Kiddy, Michael Kosz, Gary F. Langer, Denise Lievesley, Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason, Wayne Marr, Clive Massey, Ken Miller, Ty B. Mitchell, Peter Mitter, Mathias Moersch, Keith Morgan, Raleigh Muns, Henry Ohlsson, Ron Overman, Tim Parker, Richard Porter, Karl B. Radov, Shyamala Raman, Terry Rephann, Rob Raisch, Phil Roan, Ken Rogers, Larry Rosenburg, Lauri Saarinen, Terry Schroepfer, Glen Segell, Ajay Shaw, Ross Shaw, Jack Siler, George Slotsve, Timothy Smeeding, Una Smith, Kim Sosin, Johannes Strasser, George Tauchen, Sailesh Tanna, Michael Thoen, Hal Varian, Edward Vielmetti, Larry W. Virden, Daniel Weinberg, Larry Weiser, David Wildasin, Sam Williamson, Stephen Yeo, Edith Wu, Grace York.
Notes:
- - Items in " " are typed directly as commands.
- - Unless otherwise stated, FTP means anonymous FTP.
- - I give directions for gopher in what I call direct and indirect methods. Some gopher client software allows you to "point" at a gopher site (the direct method), while other software does not, so you have to navigate through gopherspace (the indirect method). With the indirect method, you must first find the gopher directory devoted to what is usually titled "Other Gophers" (generally in the top or next to top menu).
- - Many of the gophers devoted to economics are interconnected; no mention is made of this below since it would take a lot of space to say who is connected to whom. The gophers at Sam Houston State University, the Economics Department at Washington University in St. Louis and RiceInfo seem to have the greatest number of interconnections.
- - For both gophers and anonymous FTP sites, the location is given as host:directory. Thus, in the directions for EconData, you'll see the FTP site given as info.umd.edu:/info/EconData. This means that you do an anonymous ftp to info.umd.edu and change to the /info/EconData directory (be sure to preserve case when typing).
- - For World Wide Web resources, Uniform Resource Locators (URL) are used to denote their location. They have the form resource://host:#/directory. A future version of this document will employ this increasingly popular standard.
- - Information about compressed files, converting binary files to text so they can be emailed and converted back to binary, and locations on gopher software can be found in the section titled USEFUL BOOKS, PROGRAMS, AND RESOURCES ABOUT THE INTERNET.
New resources in this draft are denoted with a + in the first column, while changes to resources mentioned previously are denoted with a * in the first column.Major new entries in this draft include the FDIC, the U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics Canada, the Economic Report of the President, the first electronic economics journal on the Internet (the Cyberchronicle of Political Economy), the first journal archive of a paper journal on the Internet (from the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics), and indirectly, the Economic Literature Index.
Finally, parts of this document have been reorganized.
EBB at the Commerce Department
This resource began charging for their services on Oct. 1. Charges for Internet telnet access follow.
Timed Charges:
Annual subscription fee $45
Credit for connect charges $20
8AM - noon (Eastern) $24/hour
noon - 6PM $18/hour
6PM - 8AM (& holidays, $6/hour
weekends)
Flat Fees
Up to 1 hour/day $250/year
Up to 4 hours/day $400/year
The current telnet interface is basically that used for the dial-
up bulletin board. Thus, one must capture on the information
from the screen or use a bulletin board type download (such
as Kermit). I have not tried the later and can offer no advice.
To capture all screen data on a Unix system, one can do
"telnet ebb.stat-usa.gov | tee ebb.data"
where tee takes the screen data and places it in the file
ebb.data.FTP and gopher access may be available at this time; plans were to charge by the amount transferred.
Limited guest accounts are available, use "guest" as the password. You are limited to 20 minutes of connection time and not all files are available.
Most information is in four areas: the bulletin system (which describes how to use the system), the file system (which contains files), the trade promotion system,and the utilities system (which sets passwords, terminal types, etc.) Basic information on the system can be found in the bulletin system (entered by typing "B") under "3", while a listing of files can be found in the file listing system (entered by typing "L") under 17.
Data comes in several formats. Some comes in DOS self extracting files, some in .PRN (so it can be used in spreadsheets or software that can import spreadsheet data), and some in a specialized format.
Gary Langer's BCI Data Manager, described below, is a Windows 3.1 program that lets you manage this database.
TELNET: ebb.stat-usa.gov
EBB at the University of Michigan Library Gopher
The University manually downloads files daily from the dial- up EBB. It is said to contain 700 files; I have no information on the different numbers of files contained by the two versions of the EBB. Information on file formats and the system in general can be found under the heading "Current Business Statistics" and "EBB and Agency Information and misc. files." As with the Commerce Department location, data comes in several different forms. A convenient listing of all directories for the EBB can be found in a file called "Contents of the Ulibrary Gopher" at the "University of Michigan Libraries" (described below).
One good educational use of this gopher is recent press releases concerning economic statistics. I frequently use it just before class to check the most recent numbers.
The directory directly above EBB at the University of Michigan contains a variety of useful information.
Again, Gary Langer's BCI Data Manager, described below, is a Windows 3.1 program that lets you manage this database.
TELNET: una.hh.lib.umich.edu (login as "gopher" and move
to /Social Science Resources/Economics)
GOPHER (direct): una.hh.lib.umich.edu /socsci/Economics
GOPHER (indirect): USA/Michigan/University of Michigan
Libraries/Social Science Resources/Economics
The data is accessed by programs (only for Pcs) provided by this project and it can easily be output to ASCII or into a spreadsheet format. The data is also compressed with pkzip, and they provide this and similar programs as well.
For introductory information, see "Instructions/contents.doc" and "Instructions/guide.doc".
The program that retrieves data (PDG) is relatively straightforward, but let me add my own experiences. First, you may need to change the path to the help files in the g.cfg file. Assuming that you're in a directory with one of the unzipped data files, start the program by typing "pdg". Then, a return will allow you to start normally. The command "look" allows one to survey the data in that file (additional commands are found on the bottom of the screen that allow you to print the data to the screen or graph it). One leaves the look command with an escape. To print the data to an external file in columns, use the "matty" command. After typing "matty" and the full file name you choose, you'll be prompted for the series names that can be obtained with "look". Don't separate series names with commas and be sure to end the command with a semicolon. The output of matty lists dates in the first column, but you'll need to modify the fractions used to denote months and quarters. Finally, you can easily plot data to the screen to get an approximate idea of what it looks like.
TELNET: info.umd.edu (login as "gopher" and move to
/Educational Resources/Economic Data)
GOPHER (mirror): Pip.SHSU.edu /Economics/EconData
GOPHER (direct): info.umd.edu:/Educational
Resources/Economic Data
GOPHER (indirect): USA/Maryland/University of Maryland
/Resources/Economic Data
FTP: info.umd.edu:/info/EconData
Average Price Data
Collective Bargaining-State & Local Gov't
Collective Bargaining-Private Sector
Consumer Price Index-All Urban Consumers
Consumer Price Index-Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers
Employee Benefits Survey
Employment Cost Index
Employment, Hours, & Earnings-National
International Price Index
Special Export Comparison Index
Employment Projections by Industry
Geographic Profile
Occupational Injury & Illness Rates
International Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
Department Store Inventory Price Index
Major Sector Multifactor Productivity Index
Producer Price Index Revision-Current Series
Producer Price Index Revision-Discontinued Series
Federal Government Productivity Index
Industry Labor Productivity Index
Major Sector Productivity & Costs Index
State & Area Employment, Hours, & Earnings
Occupational Injury and Illness Rates
Producer Price Index
Work Stoppage Data
Data is generally quite disaggregated; overall, there are many
megabytes of files. Besides historical data, recent press releases
are available.All data is in the pub directory, which contains a further three directories: doc, news.release, and time.series. For a short introduction, read the README file in the pub directory, while information on how the files are stored is located in the overview.doc file in the doc directory.
In general, the news releases in the news.releases directory are quite useful for tracking current events, while the great amount of detail in the actual time series will be of quite useful for many researchers.
GOPHER (mirror): Pip.SHSU.edu /Economics/bls
FTP: stats.bls.gov
INFORMATION (on Internet access): labstat.helpdesk@bls.gov
INFORMATION (on data issues): see the contact.doc in /pub/doc
In general, the data is quite extensive and detailed. Most dates back a number of years. All is in ASCII form, but some of the columns widths are more than 80 characters and some of the names are less than intuitive. As always, be sure to read all the information provided in the various help files.
All data is in the fed directory. Quoting from the README file in that directory, the data is in the following directories:
flow Flow of funds tables.
g_17 Industrial production and capacity utilization.
g_17_his Industrial production and capacity utilization.
h_3 Reserves of depository institutions.
h_4_2 Weekly series on assets and liabilities of
large commercial banks.
h_15 Selected interest rates.
money Money stock measures and components.
others Other Federal Reserve data tables.
Each directory contains many files and some even contain other
directories of data. In each, there are several compressed files
in different formats (denoted with different filename suffixes)
with that directory's files. Each directory also contains a file
with information on the data in that directory (the names of these
files vary).
GOPHER: gopher.town.hall.org/Federal Reserve Board
WWW: http://www.town.hall.org/Federal Reserve Board Data
FTP: town.hall.org:/other/fed
FTP: neeedc.umesbs.maine.edu
INFORMATION: Jim Breece (breece@maine.maine.edu)
GOPHER (mirror): Pip.SHSU.edu /Economics/FRB-Boston
Besides the text of the document, it also contains graphics files of the graphs and Lotus spreadsheet files of the very useful data in this document. Apparently, a few of the spreadsheet files are corrupted, but this appears to stem from problems with the original CD, not problems with transferring the data from the CD to this Gopher site.
Currently, this site contains the reports from 1992 and 1993, and the report for 1994 is expected soon.
GOPHER: umslvma.umsl.edu/The Library/Government Information
/Economic Reports of the President
INFORMATION: gopher-l@umslvma.umsl.edu
GOPHER: simon.wharton.upenn.edu
FTP: ftp.cu.nih.gov:/NARA_ELECTRONIC Directions: anonymous FTP, but press the return key for the password
The email interface comes from Netlib, so an introduction can be obtained by sending email to the address listed below with "send index" in the body of the message. For FTP, the files "index" and "orsindex_txt" are available in the "pub" directory.
E-MAIL: info@ssa.gov
FTP: soaf1.ssa.gov/pub
INFORMATION: info@ssa.gov
TELNET: fedworld.gov
FTP: ftp.fedworld.gov
FTP: dg-rtp.dg.com:/pub/misc.invest
GOPHER (direct): riceinfo.rice.edu:/Information by Subject Area/Census
GOPHER (indirect): USA/Texas/RiceInfo
Previously, this database was available only through Mead Data in either inconvenient locations or at very considerable expense. In an experiment, it is now be available at no cost over the Internet. This service is provided and funded by the NSF, the NYU Stern School of Business, and the Internet Multicasting Service, run by Carl Malamud, an economist at the Board of Governors.
This database only covers fillings made in 1994 for public consumption, when made electronically by the filling company. Thus, it does not cover earlier years, current paper fillings or non-public ones. Even so, the data is extensive; there appear to be more than 6,000 fillings for January alone.
As the experiment progresses, there will be many changes in the design of the database (for instance, a World Wide Web interface is envisioned). Be sure to read the file general.txt in the main directory for the latest information. Currently, the files form.idx and company.idx in the main directory list the fillings. The first is ordered by the type of form, and the second by the company (both contain the same information, just in different order). Entries in both of these files list the file in the data1 directory with the relevant filling.
GOPHER: gopher.town.hall.org/SEC EDGAR
WWW: www.town.hall.org/SEC EDGAR Documents
FTP: town.hall.org/edgar
EMAIL: mail@town.hall.org (send HELP in the body to receive info)
INFORMATION: edgar-interest@town.hall.org (mailing list on edgar; to subscribe to it, send email to: edgar-interest-request @town.hall.org)
TELNET: usda.mannlib.cornell.edu (login as "usda")
GOPHER (direct): usda.mannlib.cornell.edu
GOPHER (indirect): USA/New York/Cornell University, Albert R. Mann
University Library
FTP: usda.mannlib.cornell.edu:/usda
INFORMATION: Oya Y. Rieger (oyr1@cornell.edu).
TELNET: a2i.rahul.net (login as "guest", use "n", then enter
our terminal type, then move to
"Current System Information" then to
"Market Report")
Statistical information is from "The Statistics on Banking." There are issues for 1934-1992, for 1991, and 1992. Most data is in Lotus 123 .WK1 format. There are numerous help files that explain the holdings.
GOPHER: fdic.sura.net port 71
FTP: nic.sura.net/pub/fdic
To access the DES system, one telnets to gateway.census.gov, logs on with the username of "desuser", and simply presses the return key when prompted for the password. The DES system is fairly easy to navigate, with the possible exception that one moves back up a menu by pressing the Q key (for quit).
Plans are plans to put additional surveys in the DES system.
GOPHER: gopher.census.gov
FTP: ftp.census.gov
WWW: http://www.census.gov
INFORMATION: gatekeeper@census.gov
They also have an annual database of 100 macro indicators available on floppy disks to put the household surveys in context. This database also contains rules on taxes and transfers in each country to make international comparison meaningful.
The datasets are well documented, and workshops and newsletters help the researcher to use this complex database.
INFORMATION: Tim Smeeding (smeeding@suvm.bitnet)
Caroline de Tombeur (eplisjr@luxcep11.bitnet)
TELNET: fiivs01.tu-graz.ac.at (login as "BOERSE")
GOPHER (direct): olymp.wu-wien.ac.at
TELNET: concise.level-7.co.uk (login as "concise", use
the password "concise", and move to "networks",
then "parn" by using the numbers of the left
side of the panel)
FTP: ipm.byu.edu:/parn
EMAIL: concise@concise.level-7.co.uk
send following for automatic information:
start
goto networks/parn/conc-guide
info
INFORMATION: Mona Andersen (moa@busieco.ou.dk)
GOPHER: gopher.worldbank.org
WWW: http://www.worldbank.org/html/PIC.html
This information is placed on the Internet by the Univ. of Missouri at St. Louis by the same mechanism used for the Economic Report of the President.
GOPHER: umslvma.umsl.edu/The Library/Government Information
/Country Reports-Economic Policy and Trade
Practices
INFORMATION: gopher-l@umslvma.umsl.edu
In the future, Statcan Online, with more extensive data, will connect to the Internet. It will be a fee-based service.
The last two weeks of material from the Daily is on this Gopher (the primary interface for Statistics Canada), while the last six months is kept on the FTP site.
GOPHER: talon.statcan.ca
FTP: talon.statcan.ca
INFORMATION: Michael Thoen (thoemic@statcan.ca)
Some of this data is from the ESRC Data Archive at the University of Essex.
It is not clear if non-U.K. users can register for this service.
GOPHER: cs6400.mcc.ac.uk
FTP: cs6400.mcc.ac.uk
In the main Gopher menu, you can search their holdings in the directory "Archival Holdings of the ICPSR."
To obtain data from ICPSR, you generally must contact your local representative, assuming that your university or college is a member of the ICPSR. Data is also available to individuals whose institutions are not members of the ICPSR.
GOPHER: gopher.icpsr.umich.edu
INFORMATION: ICPSR_Netmail@um.cc.umich.edu
To search ESRC's holdings, one can easily search their database, BIRON, via telnet. If an item of interest is found, further information on how to obtain the data can be found via email.
TELNET: biron.essex.ac.uk (login as "biron" and use
"norib" as the password)
EMAIL: archive@essex.ac.uk
Coverage of NetEc dates from 1988, with the exception of NBER
working papers (all are covered), UCSD from 1981, and the Centre for
Economic Policy Research in London from 1983. Searches can be made
by keywords. This is one of the most valuable resources for
economists on the Internet. Fethy Mili
WoPEc contains a collection of working papers, which can be
retrieved electronically. All are Unix compressed PostScript
files.
Finally, the FTP site has the Backus and Kohoe data from
the AER, '92 (see the pub/NetEc/DatEc directory). More data
could be kept here; if you have any suggestions, please send
email to netec@netec.mcc.ac.uk.
The parent gopher, the gopher of the Economics Department of
Washington University at St. Louis, contains a wealth of
interesting material. It is the next to last entry on econ-wp's
menu.
I originally had some trouble connecting to Knowledge Index,
(the characters were garbled) which was solved by using the Kermit
version of telnet. I understand that Knowledge Index requires 8
data bits and 1 stop bit, and it appears that not all telnets can
do this. Kermit appears to do this by default. Kermit for many
platforms can be obtained via FTP from kermit.columbia.edu.
TELNET netec.mcc.ac.uk (use "netec" as your login and password)
GOPHER (direct): netec.mcc.ac.uk
GOPHER (indirect): Europe/United Kingdom/University of
Manchester/Economics/NetEc
FTP: netec.mcc.ac.uk
INFORMATION: netec@uts.mcc.ac.uk
INFORMATION about FIP: frbsflib@class.org (Diane Rosenberger at the
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco)
TELNET: econwpa.wustl.edu (login as "gopher")
GOPHER (direct): econwpa.wustl.edu
GOPHER (indirect): USA/Missouri/Washington University -
St. Louis/Washington University in
St. Louis Departmental Gopher Servers
/Economics Department/Economics
Working Paper Archive
WWW: http://econwpa.wustl.edu/Welcome.html
EMAIL: econ-wp@econwpa.wustl.edu
Directions: in the subject of the letter,
"help" will obtain introductory information
EMAIL: listserv@bucknell.edu
FTP: test.frbchi.org/pub/bsc
INFORMATION: Jim Moser (jmoser@frbchi.org)
FTP: raphael.acpub.duke.edu/jbes
In "Curtain's Rising on a Third Generation of On-Line Services," John Markoff, New York Times, 1/30/94, p. 10 (Business), more is reported on this service. It says that Wais, Gopher and Mosaic interfaces will be used for this experiment, which is offered in a joint venture between Dow Jones and Wais, Inc. The New York Times News Service will be offered next year.
Publication is to be bimonthly, and papers will be distributed via email. LaTeX will be used since it offers many advantages for technical papers.
Inquiries: COPE-Mgr@SHSU.edu
Submissions: COPE-Sub@SHSU.edu
GOPHER (direct): Niord.SHSU.edu:/Economics/The Cyberchronicle of Political Economy (COPE)
GOPHER (direct): niord.shsu.edu:/Economics
GOPHER (indirect): USA/Texas/Sam Houston State
University/Economics
GOPHER (direct): gopher.sara.nl:/Computational Economics
GOPHER (indirect): Europe/Netherlands/SARA/
Computational Economics
TELNET: cs.muohio.edu (login as "gopher" and use no password)
GOPHER (direct): cs.muohio.edu
INFORMATION: administrator@cs.muohio.edu
For the Penn World Trade tables, an extensive set of macros for
the Excel spreadsheet program can be found in pub/pwt55.spreadsheet.
For more information on this set of macros, contact the author,
Sailesh Tanna
One can only hope that someday NBER working papers will be
available here or at another working paper archive.
TELNET: nber.harvard.edu (login as "gopher")
GOPHER (direct): nber.harvard.edu
FTP: nber.harvard.edu:/pub/nber
GOPHER (direct): chronicle.merit.edu
GOPHER (indirect): USA/General (also directly on more
than 60 university gophers)
GOPHER (direct): wuecon.wustl.edu port 671
GOPHER (indirect): USA/Missouri/Washington University -
St. Louis/Washington University in
St. Louis Departmental Gopher Servers
/Economics Department/Economics
GOPHER (direct): riceinfo.rice.edu:/Information
by Subject Area/Economics and Business
GOPHER (indirect): USA/Texas/RiceInfo
GOPHER (direct): gopher.econ.lsa.umich.edu
GOPHER (indirect): USA/Michigan/University of Michigan
Libraries/Other Gophers/University
of Michigan/Economics Department
WWW: http://gopher.econ.lsa.umich.edu/EconInternet.html
GOPHER (direct): csf.colorado.edu
GOPHER (indirect): USA/Colorado/Communications for a
Sustainable Future
GOPHER (direct): sunsite.oit.unc.edu
GOPHER (indirect): USA/North Carolina/University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill (Ogphre/SUNsite
archives)
TELNET: sunsite.oit.unc.edu (login as "gopher"; you may need
to supply your terminal type)
GOPHER (direct): gopherhost.cc.utexas.edu port 3004
/Department Information/Finance/RISKGopher -- RISKNet Gopher
WWW: http://riskweb.bus.utexas.edu:80
GOPHER(direct): cob.fsu.edu port 4070
GOPHER(indirect): USA/Florida/Florida State University/Other
Information Systems at Florida State University/
College of Business
GOPHER: uwin.c-wr.siu.edu
GOPHER: mundo.eco.utexas.edu
Note that many libraries can also be reached via gopher (typically under a title like "Libraries"). The following files describe how the libraries can be reached via telnet and the type of indexing software they use.
Via the gopher listed below, one can directly connect to the libraries listed in the FTP files.
FTP: ftp.utdallas.edu:/pub/staff/billy/libguide (there are many
files of interest in this directory)
GOPHER (direct): gopher.utdallas.edu:/Library On-Line Catalogs
GOPHER (indirect): USA/Texas/University of Texas - Dallas
FTP: ftp.loc.gov
GOPHER (direct): marvel.loc.gov
GOPHER (indirect): USA/Washington DC/Library of Congress
TELNET: marvel.loc.gov (login as "gopher")
GOPHER (direct): dewey.lib.ncsu.edu/NCSU's "Library Without Walls"
GOPHER (indirect): USA/North Carolina/North Carolina State
University Library gopher/NCSU's
"Library Without Walls"
Netlib is available via email and FTP and even on some economics gophers. For introductory material on Netlib, use the email method by writing "send index" in the body of your message addressed to one of the sites listed below. You will receive an introduction to Netlib and its libraries and how to obtain routines from them.
At least the netlib2 sites contain some uncompressed files.
GOPHER: wuecon.wustl.edu (described above)
niord.shsu.edu:/ftp Gateways to Economics Information
(described above)
netlib2.cs.utk.edu
FTP:
netlib2.cs.utk.edu (U.S.)
netlib.att.com:/netlib (U.S.)
unix.hensa.ac.uk:/pub/netlib (Europe)
draci.cs.uow.edu.au:/netlib (Pacific)
E-MAIL:
netlib@ornl.gov (U.S.)
netlib@research.att.com (U.S.)
netlib@unix.hensa.ac.uk (Europe)
netlib@nac.no (Europe)
netlib@draci.cs.uow.edu.au (Pacific)
For the email interface, send the phrase "send index" in the body of your message.
E-MAIL: statlib@lib.stat.cmu.edu
GOPHER (direct): lib.stat.cmu.edu
GOPHER (indirect): USA/Pennsylvania/Statlib (also listed
directly on some gophers)
FTP: lib.stat.cmu.edu
FTP: uicvm.cc.uic.edu:/uicvm
Directions: must do a "cd" to uicmv
before a directory listing is shown
GOPHER: via Washington Univ. at St. Louis Econ. Dept.
(described above)
INFORMATION: Barry Grau (u42054@uicvm.cc.uic.edu)
TELNET: gams.nist.gov (login as "gams")
WWW: http://gams.nist.gov
Current financial markets include IBM, Reebok, Nike, Hon Industries, and three Minnesota stocks versus the S&P 500. The liquidation value of all contracts is determined by the value of the underlying fundamental on a set date, and trading takes place interactively through a Telnet connection.
In the past, these departments ran the well known 1992 Iowa Political Stock Market, which traded contracts based on the outcome of the 1992 Presidential Election.
This excellent teaching tool is open only to university and college staff, faculty and students. While the purpose is education and research, trades require actual money (from $5 to $500 may be invested). The developers feel that by using real money for trades, there is an increased motivation to learn about the underlying fundamentals. There are no commissions or fees and trading is continuous.
TELNET: iem.biz.uiowa.edu
FTP: umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu:/pub/iem/trman.txt (Trader's Manual)
" " /q&a.txt (Short Introduction)
EMAIL: iem@scout-po.biz.uiowa.edu
Directions: mail addressed here will
send the Trader's Manual to you.
Usenet is a decentralized discussion system running on tens of thousands of cooperating computers around the world (much of the traffic runs over the Internet). It covers almost 2,000 subjects in areas called newsgroups. The estimated number of readers ranges in the low millions and traffic each day is approaching 50 megabytes. Some mailing lists "mirror" Usenet newsgroups and vice-versa.In many ways, Usenet has it own culture and the new user is wise to read carefully before posting messages. The newsgroups news.announce.newusers and news.newusers.questions are for those new to Usenet. Since it runs on a variety of systems, consult your local site for information on how to access it.
Newsgroup Topic comp.soft-sys.spss SPSS comp.soft-sys.shazam Shazam comp.soft-sys.sas SAS (same as mailing list SAS-L) comp.infosystems.announce Internet Information System Announcements sci.stat.edu Statistics and Education sci.stat.math Statistics and Math sci.stat.consult Statistics and Consulting sci.math.stat Statistics Discussion sci.op-research Operations Research sci.econ.research Research in Economics (Moderated) All past discussions are indexed and organized into topic areas by the moderator, Forrest Smith. They are archived at (FTP) sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/academic/economics/ sci.econ.research sci.econ Discussions in Economics (often dominated by current political economy questions; a good place for economic education if you're patient)
When using a mailing list, please follow "netiquette:"
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The following is a list of email discussion groups. I have
organized the following mailing lists around the type of
software (listserv, listproc, majordomo, mailserv, mailbase,
Internet-style, and other) used to run them so that directions
can be put in one place.In general, I know little about these lists other than the fact that they exist (in fact, this list is basically an edited version of the email I received in acknowledgment when I subscribed to the lists). Traffic varies; in fact, on some, it is very close to zero and on others, it varies substantially. Where I do know something more, I've added it beneath the name of the list and its address.
To subscribe to a list run by listserv (which actually covers several different types of software which share the same name and common core commands) send an email message to LISTSERV@wherever, _NOT_ to the list itself. If you send mail to the list itself, it will be sent in turn to all members of the list. This, obviously, should be reserved for messages you want all members of the list to read and potentially respond to.
For example, to subscribe to the list Pol-Econ, you'd send email to Pol-Econ@SHSU.edu.
In the body of your email message, you should write the one line message:
subscribe CARECON your name
Note that your name is typically your first and last name.To cancel a subscription, use
signoff list
where list is the name of the list. Again, email should be
sent to listserv at the site that houses the list. Finally,
help on these and other commands can be obtained by sending a
one line message with "help" in it.Messages to the list itself should be sent to CARECON@YORKVM1.BITNET, for example. Any such message will be sent to all members of the list.
Besides the usual listserv subscription method, you must also include your specialty, organization, address, and subject of interest when you subscribe.
Listproc is roughly the Unix version of listserv. Commands for subscribing and unsubscribing are identical, except that commands are sent to "listproc" rather than to "listserv."
Majordomo is another program that organizes mailing lists. Commands for subscribing and unsubscribing are similar to those used with a listserv except that the name is not given at the end of the subscription line. Further, rather than sending email to listserv at the site that houses the list, it should be sent to majordomo@csn.org, if majordomo "resides" on csn.org.
When using a mailserv, requests for a subscription or canceling a subscription should be sent to mailserv@wherever. To subscribe, write subscribe list in the body of your note where list is the name of the list you wish to subscribe to. To cancel a subscription, use unsubscribe list
unsubscribe econ-stat
as the body of the message to mailserv@pitzer.edu
MAILBASEWhen using a mailbase, send your email to mailbase@wherever and use join list your name in the body of the text to join a list, and use leave list to cancel a subscription.
With Internet style lists, one sends requests to sign up and leave a list to the list maintainer. Simply add the suffix "-request" to the list name and email it.
This category includes all other possible types of mailing lists. Directions are listed individually.
res-econ-request@unixg.ubc.ca
with the subject as
subscribe to res-econ
and in the body of your letter, type your name.
SUBSCRIBE SUSDEV
Posting for this list should be sent to susdev.topic@parti.inforum.org.
All postings should concern sustainable development in Eastern
Europe, be in ASCII, and not exceed four pages of text.
To submit an abstract or receive a subscription, (now free), contact
John Trimble
FEN
1405 Officers Row,
Vancouver, WA 98661-3858,
trimble@vancouver.wsu.edu
206-750-9701 (voice & fax)
The abstract should be in ASCII and should contain keywords.
FTP:sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/academic/economics/sci.econ.research
Its main site is at the Sam Houston State University Gopher (described above, where the Economics section is run by George Greenwade), and is located on many economics Gophers. On this Gopher, there is an entry to fill out this information interactively, or you can fill in the following template and send it to Gopher-Mgr@SHSU.edu. In the template, each field should begin in column 9.
Name: Lastname, Firstname Middlename-or-initial
Postal: Your postal address
second line (if necessary)
third line (if necessary)
fourth line (if necessary)
City, State, Country ZIP
E-mail:
Phone: (Area code) Prefix-Telephone_Number
FAX: (Area code) Prefix-Telephone_Number
Research
Areas: Your areas of research interest, delimited by commas
NOTE: (optional) Any special information you would like to add
GOPHER (direct): niord.shsu.edu:/Economics
GOPHER (indirect): USA/Texas/Sam Houston State
University/Economics
The TeXbook, Donald Knuth, Addison Wesley, 1984, ISBN 0-201-13447-0, paperback 0-201-13448-9
LaTeX, a Document Preparation System, Leslie Lamport, Addison Wesley, 1986, ISBN 0-201-15790-X
The TeX macros written by Professor Varian, known as "VerTeX" (for Visualize Economic Reports in TeX; release 1.0 of August, 1987) are available for ftp retrieval from the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN) hosts:
hostname directory
--------------------------------------------------------------
ftp.SHSU.edu /tex-archive/macros/plain/contrib/vertex/
ftp.TeX.ac.UK /tex-archive/macros/plain/contrib/vertex/
ftp.Uni-Stuttgart.DE /tex-archive/macros/plain/contrib/vertex/
The first two sites also support Gopher access. SHSU's
CTAN is also linked into Niord's Gopher in its Economics
area, as well as the economics or TeX areas on a number of
other gophers worldwide.Finally, the command:
SENDME VERTEX
in the body of a mail message to FILESERV@SHSU.edu will
retrieve the set of 19 files via email.I have to stress that these are NOT LaTeX styles; they are TeX macros. VerTeX's syntax differs somewhat from the more standard LaTeX-type commands; however, the syntax used in VerTeX is consistent throughout VerTeX (and, as an occasional user, I fell comfortable in saying they are relatively easy to follow, understand, and use). The file set is pretty well documented and demonstrated. Varian has very roughly hinted that he might have an interest at some later date in rewriting these to use LaTeX and BibTeX (probably after the release of LaTeX3 -- since I am quite involved in that project, I feel safe in telling you not to hold your breath on LaTeX3; I'll be surprised if it's out before 1996).
The present Visualize Economic Reports in TeX styles include:
jpe.sty --- Journal of Polemical Economy
jep.sty --- Journal of Economic Perspectives
jet.sty --- Journal of Economic Theorems
aer.sty --- Armenian Economic Review
ecnmet.sty --- Economagica
restud.sty --- Review for Economic Students
qje.sty --- Quartered Journal of Economics
I'll assume that you can figure out which of these look
like what "real" journals. When you use one of these
styles, VerTeX will automatically adjust the style of the
document and the style of the references to be more-or-less
consistent with the journal style. Some fine tuning may be
needed, but the output generally looks pretty good.As the US coordinator of the CTAN (a collection now in excess of a gigabyte), if you have any TeX-related files which you would like to have included, please contact me.
BCI Data Manager is a Windows 3.1 program that lets you manage the economic time series contained in the U.S. Commerce Department's Business Cycle Indicators (BCI) and Current Business Statistics (BSDC) database files. Together, these data files, updated weekly and monthly, contain current and historic data on over 2000 data series. BCI files contain all of the time series included in the "yellow pages" of the Survey of Current Business, going back to 1945, and always contain the very latest revisions. Current Business Statistics files contain all the economic time series found in the "blue pages" of the Survey of Current Business, going back four years. These files are available on the Commerce Department's Economics Bulletin Board (EBB) and on a subscription basis. You can access the EBB via telnet through ebb.stat-usa.gov, or via modem at (202)482-3870. BCI and BSDC files can also be obtained through ftp from the U. of Michigan:
una.hh.lib.umich.edu:/bin.
The main purpose of BCI Data Manager is to extract data from these data files and save it in a useful format. You can choose to save extracted data as an ASCII file (CSV format), as a spreadsheet file (WK1 format), or to the Windows clipboard. (You can also interactively view the data on-line if you like). Range names are saved in the WK1 files to facilitate importing the data into word- processing documents and external databases. Graphs of each series extracted can also be saved in the WK1 file containing the data, at the option of the user.
The program also enables you to keep historic database files up-to-date with an automated update facility. The Commerce Department issues weekly and monthly updates of the last two and four years of data for all of its BCI data series, but unless this data can be integrated into the historic database files that go back to 1945, it is of limited usefulness. By essentially clicking on files to be updated and clicking on the files containing the updated data, the program will automatically add the updated and revised data to existing historic data files.
Another feature of the program is its ability to display graphs of all of the series contained in the database with a single click of the mouse. With a single tap of the up or down arrow keys you can scroll through graphs of all of the series on your computer as if you were turning through the pages of a book. With another mouse click you can switch the display from that of quarterly or monthly data to that of annual data. I've found that this feature is excellent for in-class and seminar slide (or screen) show presentations.
The directory /pub/NetEc/SoftEc/BCI_Manager contains two subdirectories, /zipped and /unzipped. /zipped contains a compressed file named BCI_V20.ZIP which contains BCI Data Manager and all its supporting files (in another compressed file named BCI20.ZIP), along with some instructions. You will need PKUNZIP to uncompress BCI_V20.ZIP and BCI20.ZIP. /unzipped contains all of the files in BCI_V20.ZIP in uncompressed form (to run the program you need *all* of the files contained in /unzipped).
If you use the program and like it, send me email and I will send you information about later versions of it (I tinker with it endlessly). (Also send email if you would like me to send you the program on a floppy diskette via surface mail.)
FTP: netec.mcc.ac.uk:/pub/NetEc/SoftEc/BCI_Manager (the program
can be obtained from either the zipped (using PKZIP) or
unzipped directories (be sure to get all files))
INFORMATION: Gary F. Langer (gary.langer@syslink.mcs.com)
Ed Krol. The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog. Second Edition. O'Reilly and Associates, Sebastopol, California. 1994. ISBN 1-56592-063-5.
Paul Gilster. The Internet Navigator. John Wiley and Sons, New York. 1993. ISBN 0-471-59782-1.
Harley Hahn and Rick Stout. The Internet Complete Reference. Osborne McGraw-Hill, New York. 1994. ISBN 0-07-881980-6.
Daniel P. Dern. The Internet Guide for New Users. McGraw Hill, New York. 1994. ISBN 0-07-016511-4.
Kent, Peter. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 1994. ISBN 1-56761-414-0.
FTP: ftp.eff.org:/pub/Net_info/bigdummy.txt
Gopher is a very popular tool on the Internet and is much more efficient than accessing gopher sites with telnet. Further, file transfer is much easier with client software. Packages for many different hosts can be found here.
FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/gopher.
uuencode/uudecode
This pair of programs are very useful when used in conjunction with email. Uuencode takes a binary file (such as a word processing file or a program) and converts it to text so that it can be emailed. Uudecode than converts it back to binary. Using this pair of programs, researchers can collaborate by emailing binary data or word processing files. If one host is an IBM mainframe, be sure to use the -x option.
FTP: ftp.shsu.edu:/tex-archives/archive-tools/uue
GOPHER: Sam Houston State Economics (described above):
/Network Archive Tools/uue
gzip:This new program can uncompress many files (note that this is typically denoted by a .Z suffix) found on the Internet. More information on this topic can be found below in the document by David Lemson.
FTP: ftp.shsu.edu:/tex-archive/tools/info-zip
GOPHER: Sam Houston State Economics (described above):
/Network Archive Tools/gzip
Scott Yanoff produces a list of interesting resources on the Internet. While few of them are economics (and those that are covered above) many are quite interesting and useful. One I find particularly interesting is the University of Illinois weather gopher -- you can find weather forecasts for any part of the country. Another interesting resource is books.com, a bookstore on the Internet. For those that live in rather small towns like me, this is a very valuable service.
Yanoff's list is well worth looking at for those new to the Internet.
FTP: csd4.csd.uwm.edu:/pub/inet.services.txt
John December's "Information Sources: the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication"
This document has a broader concept than Yanoff's; rather than listing just resources, December lists a number of documents as well, such as electronic guides to the Internet, and software sites. The breadth is quite remarkable. Like Yanoff's list, those new to the Internet will find it quite useful.
FTP: ftp.rpi.edu:/pub/communications/internet-cmc.txt
File Compression, Archiving, and Text<->Binary Formats:
This document, by David Lemson (lemson@uiuc.edu) details the numerous methods of file compression used on the Internet and elsewhere.
FTP: ftp.cso.uiuc.edu:/doc/pcnet/compression.
Dallas (214) 220-5169
Minneapolis (612) 340-2489
St. Louis (314) 621-1824
I understand that the St. Louis Fed has a wealth of historical
data (including money data, obviously), while the Minneapolis
Fed has FOMC minutes, and speeches and testimony of Fed officials.
I understand that a bulletin board run by Steven W. Dickey of
Eastern Kentucky University "publishes" refereed articles. He
can be contacted at (606) 622-4987, and the bulletin board is
at (601) 624-3934, UARTS 2400, 8-N-1.