The Scout Report for Business & Economics - February 22, 2001

February 22, 2001

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

The target audience of the 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.


In This Issue

New from Internet Scout

Research

Learning Resources

General Interest

Current Awareness

New Data

In The News


New from Internet Scout

Open Letter to Our Readers
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/about/letter-010202.html
Dear Readers: Here at the Internet Scout Project, we have been working on securing a new source (or sources) of funding for the Scout Reports. We are soliciting your ideas in an Open Letter to Readers that has been sent to the subscriber mailing lists and is available on our Website. Please read the letter at the address above and send us your ideas.
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Research

Livelihoods Connect [.pdf]
http://www.livelihoods.org/
Livelihoods Connect, a Website sponsored by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) and the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex, is a learning platform dedicated to helping users from all backgrounds understand the importance and potential of sustainable livelihoods as a way to combat global poverty. This active Website includes a variety of news, information, and support for those interested in sustainable livelihood. Featured on the site is a large collection of information resources mainly from the DFID including Guidance Sheets on the Department's Sustainable Livelihoods Approach, easy-to-understand, jargon-free distance learning materials, and links to related organizations and Websites. The site also contains a frequently updated Key Documents database which provides users with summaries of related working papers, manuals, and other documents. Interested users may participate in online message boards or sign up for free email updates. [EM]
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Guidelines for studies of the social and economic impact of HIV/AIDS -- UNAIDS [.pdf]
http://www.unaids.org/publications/documents/economics/costeffec/JC326-Guideliens.pdf
This 64-page document from UNAIDS is part of the Best Practice Collection of guideline manuals. The purpose of this set of guidelines is to "place socioeconomic impact studies in the planning process in a systematic way" especially in a number of sectors including agriculture and education. The guide is divided into three main chapters. The first chapter is a wonderful introduction to the socioeconomic impact of the HIV/AIDS virus. Part two offers a clear set of guidelines for assessing the socioeconomic impact of this virus, including types of data to be gathered and how to analyze data in economic and social impact studies. The third part contains information on the conceptual framework of the guidelines including the study of the impact of AIDS/HIV in specific sectors. The conclusion explains the limitations of these impact studies, especially the lack of simple technical solutions. Guidelines for studies of the social and economic impact of HIV/AIDS gives a clear framework for conducting impact studies on this disease. [EM]
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Financing for Development -- United Nations
http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/
A Website from the United Nations, Financing for Development offers information on the 1999 collaboration of the UN, World Bank, IMF, and WTO to find innovative solutions to finance development. These organizations are gearing up for a "high-level consultation in the first quarter of 2002," and many of the documents and much of the information on this site have to do with plans for this consultation. Brand new on the site are the summaries from sessions of the preparatory committee, including regional consultations, and reports on the Business Community and Civil Society hearings. The site also features a listing of new policy developments, and information on upcoming events in development financing. For those following the UN's participation in development work, Financing for Development collects many relevant resources all in one place. [EM]
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Taxation Aspects of Electronic Commerce -- Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [.pdf]
http://www.oecd.org/daf/fa/e_com/public_release.htm
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has just released a collection of reports and technical papers dealing with taxation and electronic commerce as it relates to implementation of the Ottawa Taxation Framework Conditions. The documents are simply listed with links on the main page of this Website and are loosely grouped by topic, including direct tax, consumption tax, and administration tax. The documents are available in .pdf format, and the site provides very brief descriptions of the papers' contents. In March 2001, the OECD will also publish its own report on implementing the framework conditions of ecommerce taxation. [EM]
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Internet Economy Indicators [.pdf]
http://www.internetindicators.com/
Internet Economy Indicators published in January the third of its biannual reports on the state of the Internet economy (for information on the June 2000 report, see the September 7, 2000 Scout Report for Business & Economics). The latest report finds that "the addition of 612,375 jobs in the Internet Economy in the first six months of 2000 was nearly as much as all of 1999 (when 650,000 jobs were added)." These data apparently belie more dire recent predictions concerning the state of the Internet economy. The report offers data and analysis of employment, revenues, types of jobs, comparison of Internet employment growth to the rest of the economy, comparison of Internet employment growth to revenue growth, and more. Funded by Cisco systems, the report was conducted by the University of Texas. Questions about the influence of corporate sponsors aside, the information here serves as a counterbalance to concerns about dot.com crashes (the report points out that dot.coms make up less than ten percent of the Internet's economy). The full report is offered in .pdf format with an executive summary, key findings, an overview, and selected data also posted on-site in HTML. The site also features an extensive report entitled Dot Coms and Productivity in the Internet Economy as well as an archive of previous biannual reports. [DC]
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New Features from the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS)
ERS/USDA Search
http://search.ers.usda.gov/
ERS/USDA Briefing Rooms
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/
ERS/USDA Data [.pdf, .zip, .wk]
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/
Economic Research Service (ERS)
http://www.ers.usda.gov/
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service (see the July 2, 1998 Scout Report for Business & Economics) has recently launched several new services that collectively offer expanded access to information on economic and policy issues related to agriculture, food, natural resources, and rural development. The new search page allows visitors to search by keyword or advanced options or browse a collection of selected key topics. Results may be sorted by date or title and can also be filtered by resource type (briefing rooms, publications, data, topics). The briefing rooms are in-depth overviews of over 70 selected topics which include background, features, recommended readings, recent research developments, suggested data,newsletters, and links, among other content. The new data page contains a complete catalog of ERS data products (listed by title or date), listings by date and topic, popular data products, and an internal search engine. [MD]
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Learning Resources

Tobacco Control Archives [.pdf]
http://www.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/
Sponsored and hosted by the University of California-San Francisco Library & Center for Knowledge Management, Department of Archives & Special Collections, this site offers a wealth of papers, unpublished documents, and electronic resources relevant to tobacco control issues (primarily in California). The final version of the archive will contain over 40 million pages of documents, but even now users can access thousands of pages in three collections. These are the Brown & Williamson Collection, the Joe Camel Campaign: Mangini v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Collection, and California Documents from the State of Minnesota Depository. All three are searchable and browseable. Also included at the site are a guide to searching tobacco industry Websites, full-text reports on tobacco industry activity, and links to related resources. [MD]
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Conflict Resolution in the Airline Industry [.pdf]
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/e_archive/miscellaneous/default.html?page=airlines%2Fairlines
New from the Catherwood Library of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, Conflict Resolution in the Airline Industry offers several resources on this topic. The site features a lengthy bibliography of print resources on labor relations in the airline industry, along with chronologies of airline industry strikes and presidential emergency boards under the Railway Labor Act from 1935 to 1969. These resources will offer a solid backbone for any labor relations collection. [EM]
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Rationalexpectations.com
http://www.rationalexpectations.com/
Created by Englishman Ralph Lazer, rationalexpectations.com is a full-service gateway into online economic resources. Featured on the site are detailed directories listing conferences, jobs, and Central Bank resources. Rationalexpectations.com also includes links to a large collection of resources from academic, corporate, and government institutions. User submissions are welcomed and solicited. A majority of resources on this site are UK-based. [EM]
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Osh.Net
http://osh.net/
Created and maintained on a for-profit basis by WorkCare, this metasite offers over 1,300 links to occupational safety and health information and resources. The heart of the site is the Health & Safety Index, which lists sites by topic in fourteen categories. Some, but not all, of these links are briefly annotated, and banner ads are interspersed. Other content includes feature articles, a FAQ, an internal search engine, a bulletin board, employment postings, and a free newsletter. [MD]
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Best Management Practices
http://www.dti.gov.uk/mbp/index.html
From the UK's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Best Management Practices offers sensible advice, informative articles, and helpful links to management resources. The site presents several resources from the DTI, including "Competitiveness - How the best UK Companies are Winning," an article that identifies the key elements of 100 successful companies in the UK, and the Benchmarking Index, a site that allows users to benchmark their companies against others. Be sure to visit the section entitled Best Practice Guides, Tools and Publications, which includes a wonderful collection of management sources from the DTI. [EM]
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General Interest

The Business Eccountant
http://www.businessed.net/
The Business Eccountant, published by BusinessEd.net, offers an excellent weekly round-up of business and economics related news from around the world. Geared towards college educators and librarians, this newsletter offers headlines and links to top business stories from international news sources along with financial results; articles on corporate governance; currency, interest rates, and global economy summaries; and a company profile. While all users may read via the Web, academics may register to receive a weekly email update. Intelligent and current, The Business Eccountant is a stellar business and economics current awareness and news resource. But what is an "Eccountant"? [EM]
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The President's Agenda for Tax Relief
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/reports/taxplan.html
President Bush has released a summary of his agenda for tax relief. He claims to offer a "bold and fair tax relief plan that will reduce the inequities of the current tax code and help ensure that America remains prosperous." Highlights of Bush's proposal include doubling the child care credit to $1,000 per child, reinstating the ten percent deduction for two-earner couples, thus reducing the "marriage penalty," and eliminating inheritance taxes. The rather celebratory summary provides a short explanation of each element of the new tax plan, along with several charts on topics including consumer debt, tax rates for Americans on the edge of poverty, and the tax reduction for the poorest families. Finally, the report offers an easy-to-understand, side-by-side comparison of the current tax code and the Bush plan. [EM]
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Encyclopedia of Finance
http://www.ameritrade.com/education/html/encyclopedia/index.html
Created and maintained by the Ameritrade Education Center, this straightforward financial encyclopedia explains basic concepts in clear, easy-to-read language. The encyclopedia covers six main topics: Stocks, Securities Analysis and Research, Debt Securities, Mutual Funds, Investment Strategies, and Retirement Planning. Each entry begins with a basic overview of the subject and moves to a variety of in-depth concepts. Users may choose to browse through the main topic and subtopics, or they can do a keyword search of the entire encyclopedia. Thoughtful and carefully written, this encyclopedia should be bookmarked by all beginning finance students. [EM]
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World Bank Photo Library
http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/emps/photo.htm
New from the World Bank, this photography library offers over 500 online images of development from around the world. The pictures, works of art in their own right, cover an extensive range of subjects including people, nature, and urban environments. Registration is required. Users may, however, browse the library by entering "guest" in the user name field and "browse" as the password. The library offers both a simple keyword search, as well as an advanced search which allows users to search for images in specific fields including country, topic, photographer, and description. The photographs, marked with a World Bank stamp, are displayed in large thumbnails and include accompanying information. [EM]
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Glossary for Traders
http://www.newsearching.com/nft/glossary.html
This handy glossary of trading terms is from the News for Traders Website. Trading words and phrases are concisely defined and listed in alphabetical order. Hyperlinks within the definitions lead users to other words in the glossary or to outside sources. The glossary may be browsed, but there is no search feature. [EM]
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Current Awareness
(For links to additional current awareness on tables of contents, abstracts, preprints, new books, data, conferences, etc., visit the The Scout Report for Business & Economics Current Awareness Metapage: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/bus-econ/metapage/).

Working Papers [.pdf]

Federal Reserve Board of Governors International Finance Discussion Papers [.pdf]
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/2000/default.htm
On the Effect of the Internet on International Trade
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/2000/693/default.htm
Current Account Adjustment in Industrialized Countries
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/2000/692/default.htm
Information Costs and Home Bias: An Analysis of U.S. Holdings of Foreign Equities
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/2000/691/default.htm
News and Noise in G-7 GDP Announcements
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/2000/690/default.htm
Size, Charter Value and Risk in Banking: An International Perspective
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/2000/689/default.htm
The Geography of Capital Flows: What We Can Learn from Benchmark Surveys of Foreign Equity Holdings
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/2000/688/default.htm
Output and Inflation in the Long Run
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/2000/687/default.htm
Firms and Their Distressed Banks: Lessons from the Norwegian Banking Crisis (1988-1991)
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/2000/686/default.htm

Federal Reserve System [.pdf]:
FRB Cleveland Working Papers
http://www.clev.frb.org/Research/workpaper/2000/index.htm
Is the Political Business Cycle for Real?
http://www.clev.frb.org/Research/workpaper/2000/Wp0016.pdf

FRB Philadelphia Working Papers
http://www.phil.frb.org/econ/wps/wp01.html
Will Bequests Attenuate the Predicted Meltdown in Stock Prices When Baby Boomers Retire?
http://www.phil.frb.org/files/wps/2001/wp01-2.pdf
An Exploration of the Effects of Pessimism and Doubt on Asset Returns
http://www.phil.frb.org/files/wps/2001/wp01-1.pdf

FRB Richmond Working Papers
http://www.rich.frb.org/wpapers/wpfind.cfm
Financial Stability, Deflation, and Monetary Policy
http://www.rich.frb.org/wpapers/abstracts.cfm?absn=254

FRB San Francisco Working Papers
http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/papers/index.html
Forward-Looking Behavior and the Optimality of the Taylor Rule
http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/papers/2001/wp01-03bk.pdf
Term Structure Evidence on Interest Rate Smoothing and Monetary
Policy Inertia
http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/papers/2001/wp01-02bk.pdf
The Federal Reserve Banks' Imputed Cost of Equity Capital
http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/papers/2001/wp01-01.pdf

Other Institutions:
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Working Papers [.pdf, MS Word]
http://www.oecd.org/eco/wp/onlinewp.htm#2001
Regulation in services: OECD patterns and economic implications
http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/linkto/eco-wkp(2001)13
A small global forecasting model
http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/linkto/eco-wkp(2001)12
Managing public expenditure: some emerging policy issues and a framework for analysis
http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/linkto/eco-wkp(2001)11
Trends in immigration and economic consequences
http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/linkto/eco-wkp(2001)10
Economic growth: the role of policies and institutions. Panel data evidence from OECD countries
http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/linkto/eco-wkp(2001)9
Does human capital matter for growth in OECD countries?
http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/linkto/eco-wkp(2001)8
The tax system in New Zealand: an appraisal and options for change
http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2001doc.nsf/linkto/eco-wkp(2001)7

Institute for International Economics Working Papers [.pdf]
http://www.iie.com/CATALOG/WP/2001/wp01.htm
Price Level Convergence and Inflation in Europe
http://www.iie.com/CATALOG/WP/2001/01-1.pdf
Subsidies, Market Closure, Cross-Border Investment, and Effects On Competition: The Case of FDI in the Telecommunications Sector
http://www.iie.com/CATALOG/WP/2001/01-2.pdf

National Bureau of Economic Research [.pdf]
http://www.nber.org/new.html#latest
Antitrust and the Not-For-Profit Sector
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8126
Two Mezzogiornos
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8125
Demographic and Economic Pressure on Emigration Out of Africa
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8124
Administered Prices and Suboptimal Prevention: Evidence from the Medicare Dialysis Program
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8123
Generalized Cash Flow Taxation
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8122
Exchange Rates and Tax-Based Export Promotion
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8121
Macroeconomic Effects of Regulation and Deregulation in Goods and Labor Markets
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8120
Tropical Underdevelopment
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8119
Contagion: How to Measure It?
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8118
Decentralized Employment and the Transformation of the American City
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8117
FX Trading and Exchange Rate Dynamics
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8116
Money's Role in the Monetary Business Cycle
http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8115

Centre for Economic Policy Research Discussion Papers [abstracts only for non-subscribers, .pdf papers for subscribers]
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/eDPs/new_DPs.htm
Gaps and Triangles
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=2668
Joint Ownership and Incomplete Contracts: The Case of Perfectly Substitutable Investments
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=2679
The Race To the Bottom, From the Bottom
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=2687
Optimal Fiscal and Monetary Policy under Imperfect Competition
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=2688
Optimal Degrees of Transparency in Monetary Policymaking
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=2689
Official Intervention in the Foreign Exchange Market: Is It Effective, and, If So, How Does It Work?
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=2690
Do Monetary Handcuffs Restrain Leviathan? Fiscal Policy in Extreme Exchange Rate Regimes
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=2692

International Monetary Fund Working Papers [.pdf]
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/wp1_sp.cfm?s_year=2000&e_year=2000&brtype=default
Depositor Behavior and Market Discipline in Colombia
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2000/wp00214.pdf
Issues in the Unification of Financial Sector Supervision
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2000/wp00213.pdf
Measuring Integrated Market and Credit Risks in Bank Portfolios: An Application to a Set of Hypothetical Banks Operating in South Africa
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2000/wp00212.pdf
An Incentive Approach to Identifying Financial System Vulnerabilities
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2000/wp00211.pdf
The U.K. Business Cycle, Monetary Policy, and EMU Entry
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2000/wp00210.pdf
Financial Development and Economic Growth: An Overview
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2000/wp00209.pdf
Will the Emergence of the Euro Affect World Commodity Prices?
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2000/wp00208.pdf

Stockholm School of Economics Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance [.pdf]
http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/
A simple efficient GMM estimator of GARCH models
http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/abs/hastef0434.htm
Specification and estimation of random effects models with serial correlation of general form
http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/abs/hastef0433.htm
Asymptotic properties of the maximum likelihood estimator of random effects models with serial correlation
http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/abs/hastef0432.htm
Ohlin on the Great Depression. The popular message in the daily press
http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/abs/hastef0431.htm
On the Adjusted Rate of Return to Women's University Education: A Preliminary Study of OECD Countries
http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/abs/hastef0430.htm
Cooperation or Conflict in Common Pools
http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/abs/hastef0428.htm
A Classifying Procedure for Signaling Turning Points
http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/abs/hastef0427.htm
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Periodicals

Federal Reserve System:
FRB Boston [.pdf]
New England Economic Review
http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/neer/neer2000/neer00.htm
November/December 2000
Abstracts and full-text articles from the New England Economic Review include "Building an Infrastructure for Financial Stability: An Overview," "The Use of Value at Risk by Institutional Investors," and "Has the Stock Market Become Too Narrow?" [EM]

FRB Chicago [.pdf]
Economic Perspectives
http://www.chicagofed.org/publications/economicperspectives/index.cfm
First Quarter 2001
The four articles in this edition of Economic Perspectives cover the topics of the 1998 banking crisis, market discipline and subordinated debt, the North-South business cycle, and Internet banking. [EM]

FRB Cleveland [.pdf]
Economic Trends
http://www.clev.frb.org/research/Et2001/0201/index.htm
February 2001
Published by the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Economic Trends includes updates on the following US economic trends: Workers' Health Care Insurance Costs, Credit Unions, and the US Trade Balance. [EM]

FRB New York [.pdf]
Current Issues in Economics and Finance
http://www.ny.frb.org/rmaghome/curr_iss/sec_dis/2001/ci7-1.html
January 2001
The most recent issue of Current Issues in Economics and Finance contains the article "Declining Manufacturing Employment in the New York-New Jersey Region: 1969-99," which examines the reasons for the dramatic drop in employment. [EM]

FRB Richmond
Regional Focus
http://www.rich.frb.org/regionfocus/current/index.html
Winter 2001
Summaries of articles from FRB Richmond's Regional Focus are now online. Featured articles include "After the Coal is Gone: West Virginia Finds New Uses for Former Coal Mines" and "Hand-Crafted Glasswork is a Family Legacy for Blenko." [EM]

International Monetary Fund [.pdf]
IMF Staff Papers
http://www.imf.org/external/Pubs/FT/staffp/2000/00-02/index.htm
December 2000
World commodity prices, currency crashes, and a historic look at the Japanese economy are just three of the topics covered in the December 2000 issue of IMF Staff Papers.[EM]

Bank for International Settlements (BIS) [.pdf]
BIS Review
http://www.bis.org/review/index.htm
Recently released articles and speeches from the BIS Review include a speech given by M R Chatu Mongol Sonakul, Governor of the Bank of Thailand, on the major economic events in Thailand; the comments of Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank and Chairman of the Board of Directors Urban Backstrom on the Swedish Economy; and General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements and Chairman of the Financial Stability Forum, at the Center for Financial Studies, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Andrew Crockett's lecture on ecommerce and online banking. [EM]

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
AEI Russian Outlook
http://www.aei.org/ro/ro12368.htm
Fall 2000
Conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research's AEI Russian Outlook studies the Russian middle class. [EM]
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Books and Journals

BakerBooks -- Harvard Business School
http://www.library.hbs.edu/bakerbooks/
The latest issues of New Books at Baker Library and New Books from HBS Press are now available from Harvard University's BakerBooks site. These updates are posted by the fifteenth of each month and cover new additions for the preceding month. [EM]

National Bureau of Economic Research Books
http://www.nber.org/books.html
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) presents its collection of books published in 2000, complete with tables of contents and ordering information. The site also offers chapters from books-in-progress. [EM]

Econbase -- Elsevier
http://www.elsevier.nl/gej-ng/29/27/show/
The abstracts, tables of contents, and in some cases full-text, for over 60 journals are now available online, including the following: Journal of Financial Economics (Vol 59, No 1), Economics Letters (Vol 70, No 3), Resources Policy (Vol 26, No 3), The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance Vol 41, No 1), Pacific-Basin Finance Journal (Vol 9, No 1), Mathematical Social Sciences (Vol 41, No 3), and World Development (Vol 29, No 2). [EM]
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Conferences

Inomics Conference Calls:
Email Conference Alert
http://www.inomics.com/query/alert
Conference Search
http://www.inomics.com/query/conf_search
The economics research service Inomics (described in the June 18, 1998 Scout Report for Business & Economics) includes a conference alert service. Interested parties may specify their interests and receive email notifications of up-coming events, or they may search the Inomics conference database by date, geographic location, or JEL classification. [EM]

Conferences with Econometric Interest
http://www.econ.vu.nl/econometriclinks/#conferences
The Royal Economics Society's Econometrics Journal site lists conferences in econometrics at this Econometric Links section. [EM]

Choice experiments: a new approach to environmental valuation
Harper Adams University College, United Kingdom
April 9, 2001
http://www.irs.aber.ac.uk/mec/CEconf.htm

I Mediterranean Summer School in Theoretical and Applied Economics: Inequality, Welfare and Redistribution
Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain
June 25-29, 2001
http://www.uib.es/depart/deeweb/websummer/1indexUIB.html
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Jobs

Job Openings from The Chronicle of Higher Education
Job Openings in Economics
http://jobs.chronicle.com/free/jobs/faculty/sscience/econ/links.htm
Job Openings in Business and Management
http://jobs.chronicle.com/free/jobs/faculty/professional/business/links.htm

Job Openings for Economists (JOE)
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/joe/joe/

Inomics: Job Openings for Economists
http://www.inomics.com/query/job_search
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New Data

Finance and Insurance Subject Series, 1997 Economic Census -- Census Bureau [.pdf]
http://www.census.gov/prod/ec97/97f52-sb.pdf
Recently released, the Finance and Insurance subject series of the 1997 Economic Census offers four major tables: Insurance Agents and Brokers for the United States and States: 1997, Administrative Expenses for the United States: 1997, Insurance Benefits to Policyholders for the United States: 1997, and Exported Services by Selected Kinds of Business for the United States and Selected States: 1997. [EM]
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Producer Price Index, January 2001 -- Bureau of Labor Statistics
http://stats.bls.gov/ppihome.htm
The first monthly Producer Price Index of 2001 reports that the Producer Price Index for Finished Goods rose 1.1 percent in January. It rose 0.2 percent in December 2000 and 0.1 percent in November. [EM]
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United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
2001 Agency Reports/ Schedule
http://www.usda.gov/news/calindex.htm
USDA summarizes its report releases from various sources (the Economic Research Service, the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the Foreign Agricultural Service, and the World Agricultural Outlook Board) at this calendar site. Notable data for February 2001 include the report on cattle. According to the most recent update to this report, there were 97.3 million head of cattle and calves in the US as of January 1, 2001. This is one percent lower than a year ago and two percent lower than in 1999. [EM]
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International Energy Annual -- Energy Information Administration
http://www.eia.doe.gov/iea/
This yearly publication from the EIA offers annual historical data for topics including world energy production, consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions. Country-level data span from 1980 to 1999. [EM]
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In The News

IBM defends itself against Holocaust allegations
1) "Book, Lawsuit Slam IBM's Nazi Ties" -- News Factor Network
http://www.newsfactor.com:80/perl/story/7417.html
2) "IBM Technology Helped Facilitate the Holocaust" -- Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com:80/news/comment/20010219/t000015086.html
3) IBM Holocaust
http://www.cmht.com/casewatch/civil/ibm.html
4) IBM Statement on Nazi-era
http://www.ibm.com/Press/prnews.nsf/jan/E761868F46444B06852569F20064F555
5) "IBM Gets An Ugly History Lesson" -- Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/2001/02/12/0212global.html
6) "New IBM-Holocaust book provides one-sided look at Watson" -- _Binghamton Press

http://www.binghamtonpress.com:80/binghamtonnews/business/Subus1.html
7) "Counted for Persecution; IBM's Role in the Holocaust" -- Washington Jewish Week
http://hometown.aol.com/merryeee/ibmstory.htm
Recently, the IBM computer company has been receiving bad press due to both a newly published book and a lawsuit which claim that IBM aided the German Nazi party in World War II. According to both IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation by Edwin Black and a lawsuit filed by five holocaust victims, the Nazis used IBM tabulating machinery to help identify and persecute the Jews. The lawsuit focuses on IBM's responsibility in the Holocaust. Suzette M. Malveaux, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, explained, "We know that IBM equipment and expertise was used in concentration camps and that IBM knew this." Edwin Black, the author of IBM and the Holocaust, also identifies IBM as the Nazis' database equipment supplier, but he writes that IBM aided the Germans not because the company was sympathetic to Nazi policies, but because the company was simply trying to get ahead in the global market.

The News Factor Network (1) and the Los Angeles Times(2) provide basic details on both the lawsuit and the book alleging IBM's role in the Nazi's attempt to exterminate the Jews. The law firm Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld, and Toll (3), which represents the five holocaust victims suing IBM, provides an excellent collection of news articles and important documents from the case. IBM (4) has released a statement acknowledging its business dealings with the Nazis but insisting that it has no ideological ties to the party. Forbes Magazine(5) offers this sympathetic editorial about IBM's World War I-era business choices, and Kevin Maney, a columnist for the Binghamton Press(6), complains that IBM and the Holocaust overlooks the brilliance of IBM's founder Thomas Watson Sr. Finally, this Washington Jewish Week article (7) from 1998 offers a synopsis of IBM's role in the Holocaust. [EM]
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