Information Services

Economics

Some useful resources for Economics are listed below.

Key Resource

Business Source Complete

Access information: Access on and off-campus.
Description: The world’s largest full text business database, Business Source Complete provides full text for nearly 3,300 scholarly business journals, including full text for more than 1000 peer-reviewed business publications. This database provides full text for more than 300 of the top scholarly journals. Updated daily.
Coverage: 1922-present.

 

Cross-National Time-Series (CNTS) Data Archive

Access information: Access on and off campus
Description:

The Cross-National Time-Series (CNTS) Data Archive provides ranges of annual data from 1815 for circa 240 countries. Variable groups include: area and population data, computer usage, domestic conflict events, elections, energy, highway vehicle data, industrial and labour force data, industrial production, international status indicators, legislative processes, mail, media, military, national government revenue and expenditure, national income and currency, telephones, physicians, political data, railroads, school enrollment, telegraph, trade, and urbanization. Derived variables include percent annual increase.

2023 Edition includes tags for Anti-Government Demonstrations, assassinations, general strikes, major government crises, revolutions, riots, terrorism/guerrilla warfare and purges.

 

Datastream Advance

Access Information:

Access to Datastream is available from Refinitiv Eikon.  Eikon is limited to selected computers in the Business School.  An alternative source of company and financial data is Capital IQ (S&P).     To request access to Datastream, email the Business School Library (hub@business-school.ed.ac.uk).

Description:

Datastream provides key data sets from both developed and emerging markets - equities, market indices, company accounts, macroeconomics, bonds, foreign exchange, interest rates, commodities and derivatives.

Coverage: 1965 - present (varies).

 

Econlit

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The database version of Journal of Economic Literature and Index of Economic Articles indexing international literature in the field of economics. Abstracts are included.
Coverage: From 1886 to date.

 

Access information:

Access on and off campus.

Description: Full text of the weekly publication which covers international politics and business news and opinion.
Coverage:

Economist.com: July 19 1997 to the present.

Economist Historical Archive: 1843 until 2020. Access to the 2016-2020 supplement is on a trial basis until 28th July 2024.

Additional Information:

Economist.com - The Publisher recommends using the Internet Explorer or Chrome browsers when using this resource.

The Library's subscription to the Economist does not include the option to use the Economist app.

 

Economist Intelligence Unit Country Reports Archive

Access Access on and off campus. The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.
Description Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Country Reports Archive provides detailed coverage of political, economic, and commercial developments covering all countries from 1952 to 1995. Comprehensive quarterly overviews allow researchers to gain a thorough understanding of an event, policy, or development. In addition to the highly regarded, impartial insight from EIU researchers, each report contains tables with detailed country-level statistics downloadable to Excel.
Coverage 1952-1995.

 

Fame

Access information: Access on and off-campus.  Choose University of Edinburgh from list then click Select button.
Description:

Detailed financial information of all UK and Irish companies updated monthly with up to 10 years of data.

FAME allows you to search by any combination of over 300 criteria including: geographic location, SIC code or activity description, number of employees, statement items, ratios, credit score/rating, legal form, year of incorporation, holding company/subsidiary.

Company comparisons can be achieved using the Peer Analysis option whilst the Statistical Analysis option allows you to produce market sector reports.

 

Finance and market datasets

Access information: Varies with resource/product.
Description: Annual reports and company accounts; stock exchange and banking analysis; current and historical global information.
 
Access Information: Freely available
Description: Access to RePEc's (Research Papers in Economics) collection of about 1.2 million on-line Economics working papers, journal articles and software from 75 countries. Freely available full-text download for many.

 

Integrum Profi

Access information:

Access on and off-campus via username and password - please see Electronic resources: usernames page for details. NB: SINGLE USER LICIENCE. For access off-campus, make sure you are NOT on the University VPN.

Description:

Searchable database provides varying sources of current information about Russia and the former Soviet Union.  Includes full text of central and regional newspapers and journals, with the archive of some of them back to the late 1980s - early 1990s.

Further information: Language note: Content in Russian, website interface in Russian or English.

 

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)

Access information: Access on and off campus. For off campus access please use the University VPN - Access to the University network via the VPN.
Description:

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), based at the University of Michigan, is an international consortium of 750 academic institutions and research organizations.  ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioural sciences. It hosts 21 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.

 

Key Resource

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: Full-text journal archive service providing access to complete back runs of all the scholarly journals currently available in JSTOR. Recent volumes are excluded, usually the last 3-5 years, but each year a further year is added to the archive. Each title is listed in DiscoverEd. About 4-5% of Artstor images migrated into Jstor are not accessible outside the United States.
Coverage:

The collections currently available are:

  • Arts & Sciences 1-15
  • Biological Sciences
  • Business I-IV Collection
  • Business & Economics
  • Ecology & Botany II
  • Global Plants
  • Health & General Sciences
  • Hebrew Journals
  • Ireland
  • Jewish Studies Collection
  • JSTOR Essential Collection
  • Language & Literature
  • Lives of Literature
  • Life Sciences
  • Mathematics & Statistics
  • Music
  • Religion and Theology
  • Security Studies
  • Sustainability
  • World Heritage Sites: Africa

The 19th Century British Pamphlets Collections is also available via JSTOR.  Userguides to the various collections can be found at https://guides.jstor.org

 

Key Resource

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description: The online edition of The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics contains the full text of the 8 volume print edition, the 2008 second edition of which the Library also stocks. The online Dictionary is a dynamic resource for economists containing hyperlinked cross-references within articles, and it features carefully selected and maintained links to related sites, as well as incorporating quarterly additions and updates. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online offers search and browse facilities, both full text and advanced.

 

Nikkei Telecom

Access information: 2 concurrent users.  Access on and off campus.
Description: Nikkei Telecom is an essential resource for various kinds of studies such as economics, politics, sociology and Japanese language. It gives access to a great number of Nikkei newspaper articles from 1975 to the present. Full newspaper images of Nihon Keizai Shimbun from the first issue in 1876 to issues published in 1974 are also available. The database also contains hundreds of daily news articles in English published by Nikkei Inc. and Dow Jones & Company Inc. An English Archive Search is available for Nikkei Asian Review and major Nikkei newspaper articles. In addition to news articles, Nikkei Telecom offers various aspects of business information related to Japanese economy, such as profile information of major Japanese companies, personnel information of executives, Nikkei's survey data, macroeconomic statistics, etc.
Coverage: 1876 to the present
Userguides:

Nikkei Telecom English User guide (PDF)

 

OECD iLibrary

Access information: Access on and off campus.
Description:

Subscribed resources available via the iLibrary include the OECD/IEA Energy iLibrary, OECD Observer and OECD Economic Surveys.

The iLibrary also provides access to a substantial amount of free content, including the OECD Factbook, OECD Working Papers, Key Tables, Multilingual Summaries and most 'At a Glance' publications.

Alternative source:

Not all content is subscribed to. An alternative source is the UK Data Service's UKDS.Stat service.

Access to full content available from the National Library of Scotland. Registration required. Please note your main address must be in Scotland

 

Orbis - Very Large

Access Information:

Access on and off campus

Description: Orbis is an umbrella product that incorporates data held on Fame, Amadeus, Zephyr. Orbis contains comprehensive information on companies worldwide, with an emphasis on private company information. Use it to research individual companies, search for companies by profile, analyse companies. Orbis contains information on both listed and unlisted companies.
Coverage: The University subscription for Orbis is limited to information for companies in the category 'Very large company' that have operating revenue >= $130 million US, total assets >= $260 million US, employees >= 1000

 

Osiris

Access information: Osiris was discontinued by BVD/Moodys Analytics 1 December 2022, Osiris content is available from Orbis - Very Large  
Description: Provides financial information on 55,000 listed and major unlisted/delisted companies worldwide (43,000 are non-US companies). The information includes: standardised and "as reported" financials (including restated reports), SEC filings, detailed earnings estimates including recommendations, ownership, stock data, news and ratings.

 

Access information: Access on and off campus
Description: Complete text of scholarly books published by Oxford University Press in the subject areas below.
Coverage: Archaeology, Biology, Business & Management, Chemistry, Classical Studies, Clinical Medicine and Allied Health, Computer and Information Science, Earth Sciences and Geography, Economics and Finance, Education, Environmental Science, History, Law, Linguistics, Literature, Mathematics, Music, Neuroscience, Palliative Care, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Public Health and Epidemiology, Religion, Social Work and Sociology. We have access to over 20,700 e-books.

 

Project Syndicate

Access information:

Access on and off campus. 

Description:

Project Syndicate provides commentaries by distinguished economists and policymakers. Sections include Economics, Politics, Development, Sustainability, Culture, and Innovation. Includes archive of past articles, including in-depth thematic coverage via ‘Big Picture’

 

Access information: Available on and off-campus. Choose Login via UK federation. Also requires separate registration with UK Data Service
Description: The UK Data Service is a comprehensive resource funded by the ESRC and delivered by the UK Data Service to support researchers, teachers and policymakers who depend on high-quality social and economic data. The UK Data Service provides access to over 7,000 digital data collections for research and teaching purposes covering an extensive range of key economic and social data, both quantitative and qualitative, and spanning many disciplines and themes. Key data in our collection: UK surveys, Cross-national surveys, Longitudinal studies, Census data, International macrodata, Business microdata.
Coverage: 1971 - present

Additional information:

Please refer to the Research Data Service for more information on statistics and data.

 

Web of Science Core Collection

 
Access information:

Access on and off campus.

  Russian Science Citation Index is not presently included in the Web of Science.
Description:

Citations and abstracts to millions of journal articles and conference proceedings from all subjects. Cited reference searching, Impact Factors, h-indexes and email alerts available.

Coverage:

Arts & Humanities (1975 onwards), Science and Social Sciences Citation Indexes (both 1900 onwards), Conference Proceedings in Science and Social Science & Humanities (both 1990 onwards).

Also: Book Citation Indexes in Science and Social Sciences & Humanities (both 2005 onwards), Current Chemical Reactions (1986 onwards), Emerging Sources Citation Index (2015 onwards), Current Chemical Reactions (1985 onwards), Index Chemicus (1993 onwards).

Change "Search in:" to use: BIOSIS Citation Index (1926 onwards), Current Contents Connect (1998 onwards), Data Citation Index (1990 onwards), Derwent Innovations Index (1966 onwards), KCI-Korean Journal Database (1980 onwards), Medline (1950 onwards), PrePrint Citation Index (1991 onwards), ProQuest Dissertatoins & Theses Citation Index (1637 onwards), SciELO Citation Index (2002 onwards), Zoological Record (1864 onwards).

Help:

Publisher userguide

Finding articles which have in their reference lists a work you found useful ('cited reference searching'):

Cited Reference Searching (pdf)

 

Journal Citation Reports (JCR): 

Journal Impact Factors and other measures on JCR (pdf)

Related Links

Subject guide: Economics