The Scout Report for Business & Economics - November 6, 1997


The Scout Report for Business & Economics

November 6, 1997

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.

In This Issue
The Scout Report
* Research * Current Awareness
* Learning Resources * New Data
* General Interest * In the News

Research
Transport and the Environment--OECD [.pdf]
http://www.oecd.org/env/cc/
Transport and the Environment is a web site developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to publicize their work on environmental research, in particular reconciling transport and environment objectives. At the site, visitors can obtain general information and background on OECD work on transport and environmental policies. The site also provides "detailed information on current and recent OECD projects dealing with Transport and Environmental Policy including the Project on Eco-Efficiency in Transport and the Project on Individual Travel Behavior." Various publications by the OECD, International Energy Agency (IEA) and European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) are available at the site as well. Some of the publications are available for download (Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] format) while others have to be ordered from the OECD. [THN]
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Economic Indicators--CEA
http://www.gpo.ucop.edu/catalog/econind.html
Provided by the US Council of Economic Advisors, this monthly magazine offers an economic pulse of the nation via over 40 time series tables and graphs in the areas of output, employment, production, prices, money, federal finance, and international statistics. The University of California GPO (Government Printing Office) Gateway (discussed in the August 2, 1996 Scout Report) provides each issue in both text and Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) formats. The publication is searchable and browsable; each issue is conveniently divided into individual tables for ease of downloading. EI is an indispensible resource for economists, business analysts, and journalists, and the UC GPO gateway has provided an invaluable service in making it easily accessible. [THN]
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Economic Development Web Site
http://www.hhh.umn.edu/Centers/SLP/edweb/
The Economic Development Web Site is maintained by the State and Local Policy Program, in the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, at the University of Minnesota. The site provides various resources related to economic development at the regional level. Visitors may want to start with Understanding Your Industries -- A Framework for Industry Analysis, which will examine several different analytical tools (both quantitative and qualitative) that help to describe how key industries cluster in a particular area. Several examples of areas that include industry cluster in their development strategies are available. There are also "ten key principles for developing a cutting edge economic development strategy for your area" and links to both national and state data coupled with a description of the data. [THN]
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Project 2000: Research Program on Marketing in Computer Mediated Environments [.ps, .ps.Z]
http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/
Project 2000 at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, is "devoted to the scholarly and rigorous investigation of the marketing implications of commercializing hypermedia computer-mediated environments (CMEs) like the World Wide Web and other emerging electronic environments." The working papers from the researchers working on the project are available for download at the site. The newest paper on the site is "Measuring the Flow Experience Among Web Users" by Novak and Hoffman. The survey instrument and dataset from that paper are available for download. The site also contains course outlines for Project 2000 related marketing courses. [THN]
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International Health Economics Association [.pdf]
http://www.healtheconomics.org/
The International Health Economics Association (iHEA) is devoted to increasing "communication among health economists." The web site provides information about the association and a searchable directory of health economists. Both eHEAL and HEAL, the electronic and print newsletter of iHEA can be found at the site. The newsletters provide listings of job openings, conferences, calls for papers and new research initiatives. Past issues of both newsletters are available at the site. Users can benefit from the exemplary collection of links to health economics sites. [THN]
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Learning Resources
Understanding the World Macroeconomy
http://www.stern.nyu.edu/~nroubini/MACRO3.HTM
Understanding the World Economy is provided by Nouriel Roubini, Associate Professor of Economics and International Business at the Stern School of Business, New York University for his MBA Macroeconomics course. The aim of the course is to review and analyze current macroeconomic issues from the viewpoint of businesses and policymakers. The highlight of the web site is the collection of lecture notes by Nouriel Roubini and David Backus covering topics on the macroeconomy. These notes are comprehensive and contain links to other web resources related to the topics. The other highlight of the site is "Recent Macroeconomic Controversies and Policy Debates," which introduces the readers to the major macroeconomic issues in the United States. The topics covered there include supply-side economics, productivity growth and NAIRU (Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment) among others. A hypertext glossary of business cycle indicators and links to sources of data for business cycles can be found on the site as well. Finally, the site also contains the syllabus, reading list, handouts and assignments for the course. [THN]
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CTI Centre for Economics
http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/ctiecon/
The Computers in Teaching Initiative (CTI) Centre for Economics is housed at the Institute for Learning and Research Technology at the University of Bristol. The aim of this site is to promote the use of "learning technologies in United Kingdom higher education." The main feature of the site is the electronic archive of CHEER (Computers in Higher Education Economics Review) newsletter which features articles on the use of computers in education and reviews on software packages. The site also contains the CTI Economics newsletter which provides information on recent developments and forthcoming events at CTI Economics. Visitors can consult a list of workshops, conferences and courses in Economics and Computer Assisted Learning in the UK and abroad. [THN]
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CyberEconomics
http://ingrimayne.saintjoe.edu/econ/TitlePage.html
CyberEconomics is developed by Robert Schenk, Professor of Economics at Saint Joseph's College. The site is meant to be "an interactive supplement to a principles of economics course." CyberEconomics covers most of the topics in introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics. A short explanation of each topic is provided and at the end of each topic there is a review section consisting of multiple choice questions to test the reader's understanding. CyberEconomics features an index of all of the topics addressed at the site, allowing readers to go directly to their topic of interest. [THN]
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Financial Management of the Firm
http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~ppeters/fin3403/
Financial Management of the Firm is provided by Professor Pamela Peterson from the College of Business at Florida State University. It contains lecture outlines, examples used in class and sample problems (with solutions). The topics covered on this page include Financial Accounting Information, Taxation and Cash Flows, Financial Analysis, Time Value of Money, Valuation, Risk and Return, Capital Budgeting and Cost of Capital. Several time value of money tables and examples on how to use them are included. [THN]
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General Interest
International Finance Corporation (IFC)
http://www.ifc.org
Trends in Private Investment in Developing Countries: Statistics for 1970-95
http://www.ifc.org/DEPTS/OPS/ECON/PUBS/DP31/TOC.HTM
Trends Dataset
http://www.ifc.org/DEPTS/OPS/ECON/DATA/DATASET.HTM
IFC, a member of the World Bank group, provides loans and equity financing for private sector projects, and advisory services to governments in developing countries to promote economic development. This website offers information about the products and services that IFC provides; reports on IFC projects and activities; and puts out press releases. There is also a collection of discussion and technical papers available at the site. IFC has also made available the dataset "Trends in Private Investment in Developing Countries: Statistics for 1970-95." The highlight of the site is the Emerging Markets Data Base (EMDB). The data base currently covers 1,900 stocks in 45 developing nation stock markets. The site provides daily updates and weekly reports on the performance of these stock markets in US dollar and Japanese yen terms. [THN]
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Web Marketing Info Center
http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/
The Web Marketing Info Center, developed by Wilson Internet Services, "provides links to hundreds of online articles about how to market one's business on the Web." These online articles can be browsed by categories such as Banner Ads, Demographics, and Electronic Commerce, or searched by keywords. Archives of past issues of Web Marketing Today, a monthly newsletter, are available; visitors can subscribe at the site to receive the free email version of this publication. [THN]
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Yahoo! UK Finance
http://finance.yahoo.co.uk/
Yahoo! UK Finance is a new site that provides the latest updates on quoted stocks, indices, foreign exchange and business news in the United Kingdom. The site publishes share price and trading information on all London Stock Exchange stocks with a 20-minute delay. It will also provide delayed information for stocks trading on the Frankfurt and Paris stock market. Yahoo! offers real-time foreign exchange rates and the latest UK business news from the Press Association and Reuters Holdings. [THN]
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CNBC Europe [RealPlayer]
http://www.cnbceurope.com/
CNBC Europe is the web site of the European Business News (EBN) channel. The site posts the latest business news from all over Europe. Visitors can also listen to EBN's live broadcast of European news or specific programs. The Markets section provides continuous updates of European stock markets and daily market reports for each stock exchange. The Features section holds a collection of video clips from EBN programs such as "The Big Game," "Automotive," and "Your Money," among others. [THN]
[Note: Site formerly known as "EBN Interactive."]
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Corporate Information
http://www.corporateinformation.com/
Gregory Regnery has put together an extensive list of sites with information on corporations from around the world. The aim of the site is to allow people to find information about a particular company quickly. Hence, the web sites featured here consist mainly of business directories and stock exchanges. Both domestic and international sources of corporate information are available; resources are sorted by country. This web site also contains a list of definitions for security identifiers and company extensions used by other countries. [THN]
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Japan BizTech
http://www.japanbiztech.com/
Japan BizTech is a source for technology and business news from Japan and Asia developed by Nikkei Business Publications. It covers the latest news and research breakthroughs in the communications, electronics and computer industries in Japan and other Asian countries. An online directory for technology and business contacts throughout Asia in banking, communications, transport equipment and wholesale is available at the site. [THN]
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Current Awareness
(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
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Working Papers [.pdf]
http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/wpchrono.htm
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has released four new working papers (97-4 to 97-7). Working Paper No. 97-4 titled "Managers' Opportunistic Trading of Their Firms' Shares: A Case Study of Executives in the Banking Industry" by John S. Jordan examines the trading practices of bank managers and reveals the opportunistic behaviors exhibited by these managers. [THN]

International Monetary Fund Working Papers [.pdf]
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/CAT/wp.cfm
IMF has released 14 new working papers (WP/97/126 to WP/97/139). These papers cover issues such as corruption, labor market in transition economies, cycles in China, and savings in the Asian tigers, among others. [THN]

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Trade Relations with Economies in Transition and Developing Economies [.pdf, 79 pages]
http://www.oecd.org/ech/pub/G97_174.PDF
Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Working Papers (Word 6.0)
http://www.oecd.org/agr/publications/age_pufr.htm
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released a new paper titled "Market Access for the Least Developed Countries: Where are the Obstacles?" This paper examines the obstacles least developed countries (LDCs) face when trying to access the OECD markets and what can be done to enhance their access. There are also three new working papers on food, agriculture and fisheries. They cover topics such as recent policy changes in Brazilian agriculture and environmental benefits from agriculture. [THN]
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Periodicals
Federal Reserve System
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Economic Review [.pdf]
http://www.frbatlanta.org/publica/eco-rev/rev_abs/3rd97.html
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Review [.pdf]
http://www.frbkc.org/publicat/econrev/er97q3.htm
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Agricultural Letter [.pdf]
http://www.frbchi.org/pubs-speech/publications/periodicals/aglet/welcome.html
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter [.pdf]
http://www.frbsf.org/econrsrch/wklyltr/el97-33.html
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston New England Economic Review [.pdf]
http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/neer/neercurr.htm
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta has released the third quarter issue of Economic Review. This issue contains articles on the European Monetary Union, systemic risk, and currency derivatives. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has released the third-quarter issue of the Economic Review, which contains articles on long-run return on the stock market, social security privatization, and yield spreads as predictors of economic activity. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has released the October 1997 issue of the Agricultural Letter, which features an article on US milk production trends. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, in its latest issue of the Economic Letter, enumerates lessons learned from the recent currency and economic crisis in Thailand. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has released the September/October issue of the New England Economic Review. It contains articles on the Beveridge curve, overvaluation of stocks, and bank capitalization. [THN]
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Books and Journals
Academia Book Releases--Baker & Taylor--November 1997
November 1997 Books in Business
http://www.baker-taylor.com/Academia/M11/UBBS/ubbs17.html
November 1997 Books in Economics
http://www.baker-taylor.com/Academia/M11/UBBS/ubbs16.html
Baker & Taylor's Academia site has put together a collection of newly available books in Business and Economics. [THN]

Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis [.pdf]
http://depts.washington.edu/jfqa/
The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis is published by the School of Business Administration at the University of Washington, Seattle. It publishes theoretical and empirical research in financial economics. The web site details the instructions on submitting articles for publications; table of contents and abstracts of previous articles are also accessible. Full text of articles that have been accepted for publication are available in Acrobat format. [THN]
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Conferences
Parallel Computing and Algorithms in Economics and Finance
http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/dae/cefes98/conf.htm
There is a call for papers for the 1998 International Meeting of the Society for Computational Economics to be held June 29-July 1, 1998 at Cambridge University, UK. The organizers are looking for papers that address methods for solving economic and finance problems on parallel computers. [THN]

Eighth International Symposium on Dynamic Games and Applications
http://www.inria.fr/miaou/CONF-isdg.html
The Eighth International Symposium on Dynamic Games and Applications, organized by the International Society on Dynamical Games, will be held in Maastricht, the Netherlands from July 6 to July 8, 1998. [THN]

First Annual Conference on Global Economic Analysis
http://www.agecon.purdue.edu/gtap/news.htm
The First Annual Conference on Global Economic Analysis will be held at Purdue University from June 8 to June 10,1998. The conference is organized by the Global Trade Analysis Project (discussed in the October 23, 1997 Scout Report for Business & Economics) and will cover recent issues concerning the use of applied general equilibrium models. [THN]

Seventh Annual EFMA-FMA European Conference
http://www.fma.org/98call.htm
The Seventh Annual EFMA-FMA European Conference, organized by the European Financial Management Association (EFMA) and the Financial Management Association International (FMA), will be held in Lisbon, Portugal from June 24-June 26, 1998. The aim of the conference is to "bring together academicians and practitioners with interest in financial decision-making." [THN]

European Association of Labour Economists (EALE) Annual Conference 1998
http://gsbmxn.uchicago.edu/homelabor/lebb.htm
The European Association of Labour Economists (EALE) will hold their 1998 annual conference from September 17-20, 1998 at Blankenberge, Belgium. The meeting will be organized by the ETE (Economy of Labour and Employment), the research unit attached to the Department of Applied Economics (DULBEA), and the Institute of Labour from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). [THN]
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Job Listings
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
The Chronicle of Higher Education provides weekly job openings of mainly teaching jobs in both business and economics. [THN]

Job Openings for Economists (JOE)--November 1997
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/joe/joe/
JOE is provided by the American Economics Association and the Economics Department at the University of Texas at Austin. It is published seven times per year. [JS]
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New Data
(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/).

Government Information Sharing Project
Regional Economic Information System: 1969-1995
http://govinfo.kerr.orst.edu/reis-stateis.html
Consolidated Federal Funds Report 1986-1996
http://govinfo.kerr.orst.edu/cffr-stateis.html
The Regional Economic Information System (REIS), from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, presents estimates of personal income and per capita personal income. This update includes figures from 1995. The Consolidated Federal Funds Report (CFFR) from the Census Bureau provides information on Federal Government expenditures or obligations for all states, counties and subcounty areas of the US. It has been updated to include data for 1996. [THN]
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Bureau of Economic Analysis
http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/rels.htm
The Bureau of Economic Analysis has released the figures for State Personal Income for the second quarter 1997 and advance estimates for the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter 1997. According to the advance estimates, real GDP increased at an annual rate of 3.5% in the third quarter compared with 3.3% in the second quarter. [THN]
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Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions
http://www.bog.frb.fed.us/fomc/bb/current/
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors has released the latest issue of the Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions ("Beige Book," discussed in the January 24, 1997 Scout Report). The report contains anecdotal information on the current economic situation. [THN]
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Energy Information Agency
The Impact of Environmental Compliance Costs on U.S. Refining Profitability
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/perfpro/ref_pi/contents.html
Country Energy Profile: China
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/china/contents.html
The Impact of Environmental Compliance Costs on U.S. Refining Profitability analyzes the "effects of pollution abatement requirements on the financial performance of U.S. petroleum refining and marketing operations." The report concludes that "about 5 percent of the $1.52 ($1995) per barrel decline in the majors' net cash margin from U.S. refining and marketing operations came from increased operating costs traceable to pollution abatement" and "of the 12 percentage point decline over the 1988 to 1995 period in the return on investment to the majors' U.S. refining/marketing operations, slightly over 1 percentage point can be attributed to increased capital expenditures and operating costs for pollution abatement." Country Energy Profile: China provides energy forecasts for China as well as an analysis of China's energy structure. [THN]
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Dairy Futures Information Homepage--University of Wisconsin
http://www.aae.wisc.edu/future/dairy1.htm
Provided by Department of Agricultural And Applied Economics Professor T. Randall Fortenberry and Center for Dairy Research Scientist Brian Gould at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this no-nonsense site is highlighted by its data files section, which contain, at this time, cash and futures data and graphs for the Basic Formula Price, butter, cheese, milk, and nonfat dry milk. Time series vary by commodity and are available in text and three spreadsheet formats. The site also contains other selected price data, and pointers to relevant web sites. Options data is forthcoming. [JS]
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In the News
Stock Market Crash: Looking Back to 1987
Global Stock Market Contagion
http://www.dismal.com/thoughts/crash.stm
The October '87 Crash Ten Years Later
http://www.frbsf.org/econrsrch/wklyltr/el97-32.html
Black Monday -- A Look Back at the 1987 Crash
http://cnnfn.com/markets/crash/
Remembering the Stock Market Crash of 1987
http://archive.abcnews.com/sections/business/blackmonday/index.html
1987 Crash - 10 year anniversary
http://www.lowrisk.com/crash/
The Crash of '87 --- 10 Year Anniversary--The Mining Company
http://stocks.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa091597.htm
This week's In the News looks back at the 1987 stock market crash. The six resources above provide an overview of the stock market crash then and lessons learned from that experience. The Dow Jones industrial average fell by 554 points on October 27, 1997, the largest points decrease ever, sparking fears of a repeat of the 1987 stock market crash which happened almost to the day ten years ago. Confidence returned to the stock market the next day and the Dow Jones increased by 337 points, the largest points gain ever. In the 1987 crash ten years earlier, the Dow Jones industrial declined by 508 points (at that time the largest points decrease) on October 19, 1987 but rallied to increase by 102 points (at that time the largest one-day increase) the next day.

The Global Stock Market Contagion is an essay by Mark Zandi examining the impact of the current fall in stock prices on the real economy; it provides some quantitative estimates of the impact on economic growth. "The October '87 Crash Ten Years Later," by Robert Parry, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, examines the lessons learned from the October 1987 crash and the role of the Federal Reserve in this situation. Black Monday -- A Look Back at the 1987 Crash, and Remembering the Stock Market Crash of 1987 both provide news reports on the day of the 1987 stock market crash. 1987 Crash - 10 year anniversary, provided by Lowrisk Market Analytics, contains charts of the Dow Jones industrial average during the 1987 stock market crash and charts comparing the performance of the Dow Jones in 1997, 1987 and 1929. Mike Griffis, a guide specializing in stocks who works for the Mining Company (discussed in the April 25, 1997 Scout Report), has created a 1987 Crash page with links to contemporary articles, charts, and a Mining Company '87 Crash special. [THN]
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