The Scout Report for Business & Economics

January 29, 1998

A Publication of the Internet Scout Project
Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The target audience of the new Scout Report for Business & Economics is faculty, students, staff, and librarians in business and economics. Each biweekly issue offers a selective collection of Internet resources covering topics in the field that have been chosen by librarians and content specialists in the given area of study.

The Scout Report for Business & Economics is also provided via email once every two weeks. Subscription information is included at the bottom of each issue.

Research Current Awareness

Learning Resources New Data

General Interest In the News

What Caused Asia's Economic and Currency Crisis and Its Global Contagion? [.pdf, .ps]
http://www.stern.nyu.edu/~nroubini/asia/AsiaHomepage.html
Nouriel Roubini, Associate Professor of Economics and International Business, Stern School of Business, New York University has put together an impressive collection of articles relating to the Asian economic and currency crisis. The articles include news reports, International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working papers, and research articles by Professor Roubini himself. The site is divided into several sections including basic readings, global effects, country analyses, the role of the IMF, systemic risk and short-term capital flows, case studies of exchange rate collapse, and the debate over flexible and fixed exchange rates. [THN]
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World Economic Outlook Interim Assessment--Crisis in Asia: Regional and Global Implications--IMF [.pdf, 71p.]
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/weo1297/index.htm
The International Monetary Fund has made available the December 1997 issue of the World Economic Outlook. This report contains the interim assessment by the IMF staff on the financial turmoil in Asia and its implications on global and regional economies. The report discusses the events leading up to the Asian financial crisis and how the crisis evolved; it also assesses the spillover effects from the Asian crisis to the developed economies. Revised estimates for global growth rates in light of the Asian crisis are provided. [THN]
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Michael Trick's Operations Research Page
http://mat.gsia.cmu.edu/
Michael Trick is an Associate Professor of Industrial Administration at Carnegie-Mellon University. His Operations Research web page contains extensive links to various aspects of operations research. The resources are divided into operations research lists and organizations, newsgroups, network resources, computer programs, educational programs, people, research groups, conferences, and jobs. A discussion forum offers visitors an opportunity to discuss issues relating to operations research. [THN]
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Thomson Tax On-Line
http://www.thomtax.co.uk/
Thomson Tax On-Line is provided by the Thomson Corporation, a major publishing group, to provide information on the latest developments in United Kingdom taxation. The Tax Alert section provides up-to-date UK tax news including government and professional bodies press releases, and tax case decisions. Tax news for the past three months is archived in the Tax Archive section. The Tax Facts section provides tax tables, the current indexation allowance, the current retail price index (RPI), and Inland Revenue Interest Factor Tables. [THN]
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Industry Studies Program Selected Clippings
http://econ.bu.edu/isp/clippings.htm
Rong Yi and Timothy O'Brien of the Industry Studies Program at Boston University have compiled a collection of news clippings relating to industrial organization. The clippings, obtained from public news sources such as the New York Times and CNN, cover topics such as antitrust, health, telecommunications and finance. [THN]
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Web Site for Agent-Based Computational Economics
http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/ace.htm
Leigh Tesfatsion, Professor of Economics and Mathematics at the Department of Economics, Iowa State University, has developed this site for agent-based computational economics (ACE). Visitors can find a brief survey of ACE-related research, and an annotated list of readings for ACE and complex adaptive systems (CAS). Software for ACE is also available at the site, including a Trade Network Game, which "combines evolutionary game play with preferential partner selection." [THN]
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Marketing 3023: Principles of Marketing [.pdf, PowerPoint]
http://www.cba.ufl.edu/classes/mar3023/index.html
The Marketing 3023 site, developed by Dr. Thomas G. DeLaughter of the University of Florida, provides students with course information including the course syllabus and course notes. The course notes are available in both Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) or Microsoft Powerpoint format. The site also contains sample test questions for each chapter covered in the course. [THN]
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Business Statistics: Revealing Facts from Figures [.pdf]
http://ubmail.ubalt.edu/~harsham/Business-stat/opre504.htm
Dr. Hossein Arsham, Professor of Management Science and Statistics at the University of Baltimore, developed this Business Statistics site for his MBA course. The site contains a description the objectives of the course and a review of computer packages for statistical analysis. The main thrust of the site is to explain various topics in statistical analysis such as the linear model, hypothesis testing, central limit theorem, survival analysis, and sampling methods. [THN]
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Statistical Calculators
http://www.stat.ucla.edu/calculators/
The Statistics Department at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) has provided a collection of free statistical calculators. The calculators available at the site can be used to calculate the power of a test, a regression and generalized linear model, two sample tests, and correlation. The Java-based calculator provided can be used in a browser. [THN]
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FinanCenter
http://www.financenter.com/
FinanCenter, provided by FinanCenter, Inc., is a personal finance site that provides more than 100 financial calculators to help visitors make financial decisions. These calculators are divided into categories; visitors can find information and advice on homes, autos, credit lines, credit cards, budgeting, saving, insurance, investing, and retirement. Examples of available calculators include: how much can I borrow?, how much do I need for insurance?, and what it will take to pay off the credit card balance? [THN]
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Executive PayWatch
http://www.aflcio.org/paywatch/
Executive PayWatch is provided by the AFL-CIO, a trade union group. The site aims to be a "working family's guide to monitoring and curtailing the excessive salaries, bonuses and perks in CEO compensation packages." Visitors can conduct a comparison of CEO and worker pay increases, and evaluate the reasons given for high CEO salary increases. There is also a database of the salaries of the CEOs of Standard & Poor (S&P 500) corporations. Users can find instructions on how to obtain details of CEO compensation for companies not in the S&P 500 from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) web site. A guide on what actions workers can take to restrain CEO pay increases rounds up the site. [THN]
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Bond Market Association [.pdf]
http://www.psa.com/
The Bond Market Association "represents securities firms and banks that underwrite, trade and sell debt securities." Their web site is divided into several sections. The Research Desk presents the results of research conducted by the association, including forecasts of economic growth and analysis of bond market trends. The Legislative Issues and Regulatory sections provide a summary of legislative and regulatory developments of interest to the bond market community. Market Practices contains guidelines and procedures to be followed in the bond market. The site also provides information to investors on how to invest in corporate bonds, tax-exempt municipal bonds, and mortgage securities. [THN]
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World Tax
http://www.doingbusinessin.com/
World Tax is Ernst & Young's site for international business, tax and accounting. To help executives keep up to date with the latest tax developments around the world, the site features Tax News International, a "quarterly digest of tax information in more than 50 countries." The site features the 1997 Worldwide Corporate Tax Guide and the 1997 Worldwide Executive Tax Guide, which provides a summary of the corporate and personal tax systems in more than 130 countries. An executive's guide to immigration is available. Visitors to the site can consult a series of country profiles tailored to help executives do business in specific countries. [THN]
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Doing Business In...
http://www.doingbusinessin.com/
World Tax is Ernst & Young's site for international business, tax and accounting. To help executives keep up to date with the latest tax developments around the world, the site features Tax News International, a "quarterly digest of tax information in more than 50 countries." The site features the 1997 Worldwide Corporate Tax Guide and the 1997 Worldwide Executive Tax Guide, which provides a summary of the corporate and personal tax systems in more than 130 countries. An executive's guide to immigration is available. Visitors to the site can consult a series of country profiles tailored to help executives do business in specific countries. [THN]
[Note: Site title has changed since the original Scout Report review. Site formerly referred to in the Scout Report as "World Tax."]
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(For links to additional current awareness on periodicals, journals, working papers, new books, etc., visit the Business & Economics Current Awareness Metapage: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/bus-econ/metapage/).
Working Papers
IMF Working Papers [.pdf]
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/CAT/wp.cfm
The International Monetary Fund has released seven new working papers (WP/97/175 to WP/97/181). These papers cover topics such as determinants of household savings, monetary policy instruments, civil service reform, estimates of potential output, and the role of the exchange rate as a shock absorber. [THN]
OECD Working Papers [.pdf]
http://www.oecd.org/eco/wp/onlinewp.htm
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has released Working Paper No. 187 titled "NAIRU: Incomes Policy and Inflation," by Silvia Fabiani, Alberto Locarno, Gian Paolo Oneto and Paolo Sestito. [THN]
Federal Reserve System
Federal Reserve Board Finance and Economic Discussion Series (FEDS)[.pdf, .ps]
http://www.bog.frb.fed.us/pubs/feds/1998/index.html
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Working Papers [.pdf]
http://www.clev.frb.org/research/workpapr/1998/index.htm
Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports [.pdf]
http://www.ny.frb.org/rmaghome/staff_rp/
The Federal Reserve Board has released three new working papers in their FEDS series (No. 1998-1 to 1998-3). The papers cover monetary policy and disinflation. The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland has released Working Paper No. 9801 titled "Reducing Working Hours: A General Equilibrium Analysis," by Terry J. Fitzgerald. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has released its first Staff Report of 1998 titled "Estimation of Cross-Country Differences in Industry Production Functions," by James Harrigan. [THN]
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Periodicals
Federal Reserve System
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Fed Letter [.pdf]
http://www.frbchi.org/pubs-speech/publications/periodicals/chilet/welcome.html
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Letters
http://www.frbsf.org/econrsrch/wklyltr/indx.wl.html
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Southwest Economy [.pdf]
http://www.dallasfed.org/publications/swe/swe.html
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has released the February and March 1998 issues of the Fed Letter, which discuss the economic outlook for 1998 and the effect of Asia on the Midwest real economy respectively. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has released Economic Letters Number 98-01 to 98-03 examining the issues of export competition and contagious currency crises, trends in Twelfth District banking in 1997 and the budget deficit. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has released the January/February 1998 issue of Southwest Economy, which looks at the performance of the Texas economy in 1997. [THN]
Economic Research Service--USDA
Agricultural Outlook
http://www.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/erssor/economics/ao-bb/
The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Economic Research Service has released the January 1998 issue of Agricultural Outlook. The report suggests that growth in the United States is expected to slow down to 2.5 percent from the 3.8 percent estimated for 1997. [THN]
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Books and Journals
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Latest Publications
http://www.oecdwash.org/PUBS/PRINPUBS/rp975hl.htm
The OECD has released several new publications including The World in 2020: Towards a New Age,Education at a Glance: Indicators 1997,Education Policy Analysis 1997 and Literacy Skills for the Knowledge Society: Further Results from the International Adult Literacy Survey. Price information is available at the site. [THN]
New Publications from the World Bank
http://www.worldbank.org/html/extpb/WhatsNew.html
The World Bank has released China 2020, which looks at the key sectoral issues and challenges China must face over the next two decades and Confronting AIDS: Public Priorities in a Global Epidemic. Price and ordering information are available at the site. [THN]
Econbase--Elsevier
http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/econbase
Abstracts for the latest issues of the Journal of Public Economics (Vol. 66 No. 3) and Economics Letters (Vol. 57 No.2) are now available. [THN]
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Conferences
First European Conference on Accounting Information Systems (ECAIS 98)
http://www.msu.edu./~geerts/ecais.htm
The First European Conference on Accounting Information Systems will be held in Antwerp, Belgium on April 5, 1998. The conference aims to "bring together researchers from all disciplines related to accounting information systems." [THN]
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Jobs
Job Openings in Economics from the Chronicle of Higher Education
http://thisweek.chronicle.com/.ads/.ads-by-group/.faculty/.sscience/.econ/.links.html
Job Openings in Business and Management from the Chronicle of Higher Education
http://thisweek.chronicle.com/.ads/.ads-by-group/.faculty/.professional/.business/.links.html
[THN]
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(For links to additional sources of new data see the Business & Economics Current Awareness Metapage: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/bus-econ/metapage/).
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
Employment Cost Index -- December 1997
http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/eci.nws.htm
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released the Employment Cost Index (ECI) for December 1997, which shows an increase of 3.3% from December 1996. The ECI measures changes in compensation costs, including wages, salaries and employer costs for employee benefits. [THN]
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Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services -- November 1997
http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/newsrel/trad1197.txt
State Personal Income -- Third Quarter 1997
http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/newsrel/spi3q97.txt
The Bureau of Economic Analysis has released the November 1997 figures for International Trade in Goods and Services showing the goods and services deficit for November 1997 declined to $8.0 billion from $9.1 billion in October 1997 (revised). The smaller deficit was due to the goods deficit declining by $1.4 billion. The BEA also released the third quarter 1997 figures for State Personal Income. The latest figures reveal that personal income increased by 1.1 percent in the third quarter of 1997 -- the smallest quarterly increase in two years. [THN]
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Census Bureau
State and County Income and Poverty Estimates -- 1993
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/saipe93.html
Press Release
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/cb98-09.html
The Commerce Department's Census Bureau has released the "new state and county level estimates of the number of children under 18 living in poverty in 1993, as well as state-level estimates for 1993 of the number of poor children under age 5." This new data replaces the March 1997 data. [THN]
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Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
Statistics on Banking
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/statistical/statistics/
The FDIC Statistics on Banking is a "quarterly publication that provides aggregate financial and structure information on FDIC-insured institutions, with summary totals by state and charter type." The latest figures for third quarter 1997 are now available. [THN]
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Roth IRA
Understanding the Roth IRA
http://www.datachimp.com/articles/rothira/rothintro.htm
Retirement Plans - Roth IRA
http://www.invest-faq.com/articles/ret-plan-roth-ira.html
Roth IRA Web Site Home Page
http://www.rothira.com
Fidelity's IRA Evaluator
http://personal12.fidelity.com:80/toolbox/rothira/RothIRA.html
Prudential's Retirement Planning
http://www.prudential.com/retirement/ira/rpizz1000.html
This week's In the News looks at the introduction of Roth IRA. The five resources above explain what a Roth IRA is and suggest who can benefit from converting to a Roth IRA. The Roth IRA was created as part of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 and has been available to investors since January 2, 1998. The main feature of the Roth IRA is that, while contributions into it are post-tax, the growth of the contributions into the IRA is tax-free. The Roth IRA also features simpler distribution requirements; withdrawals from it are not considered reportable income. The one drawback of the Roth IRA is that participants must pay taxes now when their tax rate is likely to be higher.
Understanding the Roth IRA site provides a brief explanation of the Roth IRA and an explanation of who would benefit from converting to the Roth IRA. To help users decide whether the Roth IRA is better, the site provides a Roth IRA Comparison Calculator. Retirement Plans - Roth IRA provides a "broad overview of Roth IRA rules and regulations" and "summarize[s] the differences between a Roth IRA and a conventional IRA." The Roth IRA Home Page Web Site provides the latest news on the Roth IRA; articles for financial planning professionals; and links to relevant Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announcements, including the necessary forms. Fidelity's IRA Evaluator and Prudential's Retirement Planning provide guidance on evaluating one's eligibility for the Roth IRA and whether it would be beneficial to convert. [THN]
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The Scout Report for Business & Economics
Brought to You by the Internet Scout Project

The Scout Report for Business & Economics is published every other Thursday by the Internet Scout Project, located in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Computer Sciences.

Susan Calcari
Jack Solock
Thiam Hee Ng
Jeannine Ramsey

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Managing Editor
Editor
Assistant Editor
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Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-1998. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report for Business & Economics provided the copyright notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The Internet Scout Project provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material.

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