INTRODUCTION

Updated issues of this guide, distributed at the end of the quarter, are available on a number of places on the Internet. The section titled "WHERE TO OBTAIN THIS GUIDE" describes the various places it can be found.

This guide describes the many resources for economists on the Internet. I try to list material of use to academic and practicing economists, and those interested in economics. For more broadly defined business resources, I list several guides in the section titled "USEFUL BOOKS, PROGRAMS, AND RESOURCES ABOUT THE INTERNET."

This is my ninth stab at this guide. I am very interested in any corrections, suggestions, omissions, and hints anyone might have.

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 U.S. Federal Reserve and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a bibliography of some 35,000 working papers in economics, household surveys from 22 countries, numerous interactive electronic markets, the AEA directory, Job Openings for Economists, extensive financial data, nearly 90 mailing lists, and two Usenet newsgroups. In all, I describe nearly 200 different resources.

I apologize for any crosspostings to different mailing lists. 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 most appreciated.

If you are new to the Internet, see the section titled "USEFUL BOOKS, PROGRAMS, AND RESOURCES ABOUT THE INTERNET."