LibGuides: Economics and Finance: Websites

Subject websites

Anyone can publish content on the internet, carefully evaluate free information according to the following criteria:

Accuracy: Can you verify the facts provided on this site? Is a methodology stated?

Authenticity: Consider the author’s credentials. Is it academic discussion? Who owns the site?

Objectivity: Are arguments presented fairly? Is the information biased in its presentation?

Coverage: Is adequate detail provided? Is the information too basic, too complex or irrelevant?

Currency: Is the information time sensitive? When was this website last updated?

The Economics Network
Lots of great links to freely available economic data online.
BBC Economy News
The latest UK and International economic news. Includes market updates and links to business programmes broadcast by the BBC.
Companies House
All limited companies in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are registered at Companies House, an Executive Agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). There are more than 3 million limited companies registered in the UK, and more than 400,000 new companies are incorporated each year. Includes dissolved companies and is available as an app.
Corporate information: company extensions and security identifiers
While U.S. companies are usually followed by "Inc.", many foreign companies have different endings. This section tells what these terms mean, and where they are used. If you don't know what country a company is based in, this list of identifers might help narrow your search.
Domain tools
Need to know who owns an internet domain name? Then this is the place to look.
Europa: summaries of EU legislation
The “Summaries of EU legislation” website presents the main aspects of European Union (EU) legislation in a concise, easy-to-read and unbiased way. It provides approximately 3 000 summaries of European legislation, divided into 32 subject areas.
Forbes Financial Glossary
The Forbes Financial Glossary defines hundreds of finance terms to help you decode the complex world of money.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) videos
Online IMF videos created to help you understand complex current issues, including defining a recession and the history of the IMF. Access to IMF's journals and databases can be found by searching Summon.
OANDA: historical exchange rates
Provides historical exchange rates.
Official company registers
The first section on this page from RBA Information Services lists some key starting points. The rest of the page is organised by continent and then country and concentrates on what is available at the online registry web sites.
Transparency International
Contains various corruption indices and reports.
The FTSE 350 2018 Review
A comprehensive review of all the sectors and all the companies in the FTSE350 index.

Bank of England
The official page of the Bank of England. Features information about monetary policy, financial stability, banknotes and regulations.
European Central Bank
Contains interest rates, market operations, payments, monetary policies and some statistics.
HM Treasury
The UK Government Treasury web site. Features access to government reports, economic data and statistics, including a forecast for the UK economy.
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Includes IMF data and statistics, country information and news.
The World Bank
Contains statistics, policy information and news items including the food price watch, climate change and African land reform. Subject coverage includes economic development, agriculture, the environment, risk management and international trade. App available.
European Union: Economic and monetary affairs
This section of the European Union website includes information on budget reforms, economic forecasts, as well as data and statistics.

New York Stock Exchange NYSE (formerly American Stock Exchange)
The NYSE MKT LLC, contains information and quotes on major equities traded at the exchange, as well as news releases and options data.
London Stock Exchange
Latest news and prices on UK indices. Fact sheets on markets and trading are also available.
World Federation of Stock Exchanges
Links to stock exchanges across the world.

Economic Indicators from the United States Census Bureau.
National Statistics
Browse by theme or find statistics for specific local area or region.
National Statistical Offices around the world
A list of the national statistical offices from around the world created by United Nations Statistics Division.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Information about and from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, with access to the most recent issues of the OECD Observer.
UK Data Service
The UK Data Service is a comprehensive high-quality social and economic data resource funded by the ESRC. Contains a wide range of secondary data including large-scale government surveys, international macrodata, business microdata, qualitative studies and census data from 1971 to 2011.

Study Skills in Mathematics
Advice on exams and revision, projects, using charts and graphs, and other study skills. Content written by an experienced Brunel mathematics lecturer.
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Hosted on the Maths Careers site which is run by The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.

Working papers

Working papers, or discussion papers as they are sometimes known, are documents which are a “work in progress”.

They are published as a means of sharing ideas and inviting comment and are often used as a precursor to peer reviewed journal articles. Although they are not the definitive article, they are still at the cutting edge of research.

Working papers have particular importance in the area of economics. Below is a selection of working papers which are available as either databases or via the web.

Brunel University Economics and Finance Working Papers
Department of Economics and Finance working papers
Brunel University Research Archive (BURA)
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BURA contains Brunel University's full-text research publications, subject to copyright permissions. You can search BURA by keyword or browse by research area or collection, eg by individual school or special research institute.
EconPapers
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EconPapers provides access to the world's largest collection of working papers, journal articles and software. Please note that not all working papers are in full text and not all of them are free.
OECD Working papers
NBER Working Papers
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The National Bureau of Economic Research Working Papers provide access to current papers, some of which is US based (e.g. main economic indicators) plus an archive going back to June 1973.
REPEC
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Research Papers in Economics collated from 58 countries and 35 US States. Includes journal article abstracts and research papers.
World Bank Working papers

Web search tips

Google Scholar. Try using this to limit your search to scholarly sources.

Google Advanced Search. You can search within a particular domain eg .gov.uk. This will limit your search to UK government publications.

Or, instead of searching the Internet, go directly to the source. We have selected some websites here that could be useful to your search.

"Double quotation marks". If you're searching for the title of a document or searching for a phrase, enclose your search in "double quotation marks".