Background Information

• CQ Researcher from Congressional Quarterly. Provides in depth basic information on a variety of topics, including the Stock Market, NASDAQ, etc. 1923+.
• Dictionary of Finance and Banking. 2nd ed. Clapp Ref HG 151 D52 1997. also available online.
• Economic Report of the President. Clapp Docs HC 106.5 A272. Includes statistics. Also available online.
• Encyclopedia of Banking and Finance. Clapp Ref HG 151 M8 1994.
• Financial History of the United States. Clapp Ref HG181 .M297 2002.
• International Dictionary of Finance. Clapp Ref HG151 .B274 2000.
• Mutual Fund Fact Book. Clapp Ref HG 4930 M85 2001.
• New Palgrave Dictionary of Money and Finance.3 vols. Clapp Ref HG 151 N48 1992.
• U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook. Clapp Docs HC 101 U14 2000.
     Chapters 45-47 have basic information on commerical banking, savings institutions, insurance, and securities, and mutual funds and commodity futures trading.
• washingtonpost.com Business Glossary contains more than 1,250 business terms.

Business and Financial News

LexisNexis Academic Business
   General business news, industry and market news, and company news; company profiles, financial reports, SEC filings, country and industry economic analysis and statistics. Some 5-yr company statistics downloadable to Excel. Full text from 1980s+.

Wall Street Journal Online - full text (text only) from Jan. 2, 1984 onward. For stock quotes, charts, and graphs, you must look at the original newspaper. Current issues are in the Clapp Library Clark Reading Room, while back issues are on microfilm (Clapp, 1st floor).

MagPortal.com Finance and Investment links to free articles in finance magazines such as Fortune and Forbes.

General Business File ASAP [via Infotrac] - articles covering all business & management topics; directory listings for 150,000 companies; full text from 1980+. General business news as well as company news.

Specific Titles

The following titles provide information on financial topics. Note the dataes available online. The publisher's Web site usually has current information but there can be a large portion of the Web site that is available only to paid subscribers. Many, if not all, of these titles are contained within the general news sources listed above. Wellesley holdings are noted.

Please read any usage agreement associated with information contained within a database or Web site that you may find searching the internet. Look for "Terms of Use" or "Usage Agreement". Note any restrictions on how you may use the information.

• Business Week. Clapp Library q HF5001 .B89, and microfilm from 1943. Publisher's web site
• CNNMoney.com
• The Economist. Clapp Library f HG11 .E2, and microfilm from 1913+. Publisher's web site, finance and economics section
• Financial Times
• SmartMoney.com
• Wall Street Journal. Clapp Newspaper Alcove. Paper issues kept until microform received, microfilm holdings: 1975-. Publisher's web site.

How to Find Scholarly Articles

The following databases provide either full-text articles or citations (information about when and where the article was published). Once you have a citation for an article, use the Find It! @ Wellesleylink from each citation to search one or more electronic journal sources through the Wellesley College Library Catalog. Use the name of the journal as the title and make sure you look at the dates covered carefully! If Wellesley does not own the article, you can request it via Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Working Papers

• NBER Working Papers - search by keyword or browse by NBER program, Monetary Economics or Corporate Finance, all Full text.
• Working Papers classified G: Financial Economics by the Journal of Economic Literature and hosted by IDEAS, the largest bibliographic database dedicated to economics and available over the Internet, mostly full text.

Internet Links:

NOTE: Using a search engine to search for material is very tempting but is to be used with caution. You will find a lot of information on social issues but many are advocating a particular point of view which must be recognized in order to write a scholarly paper. Use the following criteria to evaluate any websites:

• Who is the author of the information?
• Can you find information about the author? What are his/her credentials?
• How current is the information? Is there a "last updated" date?
• Who is the intended audience for the information?
• Is the content objective or is it coming from a certain viewpoint?
• Is the information advocating a cause?

For more information on how to evaluate web pages see our search the web page.

Industry-Related Web Sites

• The Financial Markets Center - an independent nonprofit institute providing information, analysis and teaching tools about the Federal Reserve System and financial markets.
• Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association
• Mutual Fund Connection from the Investment Company Institute.
• List of Stock Exchanges from Yahoo.

U.S. Government Web Sites

• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation promotes the safety and soundness of insured depository institutions and the U.S. financial system by identifying, monitoring, and addressing risks to the deposit insurance funds. Publishes the FDIC Consumer News.
• Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council is a formal interagency body empowered to prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms for the federal examination of financial institutions by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and to make recommendations to promote uniformity in the supervision of financial institutions. Note the link to reports.
• Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Twelve Federal Reserve Districts. The Board publishes the Federal Reserve Bulletin. Each district may have their own publication which should be on their website.
• House Committee on Financial Services and Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
     These Congressional committees hold hearings and review proposed legislation concerning the following: banks, banking, and financial institutions, deposit insurance, federal monetary policy including the Federal Reserve System, financial aid to commerce and industry, issuance and redemption of notes, and money and credit including currency and coinage. A hearing will contain questions and answers and prepared statements, and may contain reprinted information from articles. You might find transcripts and prepared statements from these hearings on the website, or Wellesley has print copies.
• National Credit Union Administration is an independent federal agency that supervises and insures federal credit unions and insures state-chartered credit unions.
• Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) - charters, regulates, and supervises all national banks. It also supervises the federal branches and agencies of foreign banks.
• Office of Thrift Supervision is the primary regulator of all federal and many state-chartered thrift institutions, which include savings banks and savings and loan associations.
• The Treasury Department publishes the Treasury Bulletin as well as press releases on financial markets.

International Finance

• Bank for International Settlements - note the link to central banks.
• Country financial information from the International Monetary Fund. Also links to a country's Central Bank, but the information may not be in English.
• Information on the Euro from the European Union; an anti-euro Web site from a group of British economists; and an impartial euro information resource and discussion forum.
• Inter-American Development Bank Finance
• World Bank.

Other

• Links to government information in banks and banking and monetary statistics from the University of Louisville Library Government Documents Department.
• The Financial Institutions Center from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Return to the Subject Page for Economics