National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
The National Bureau of Economic Research was founded in 1920 and is
"dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy
works. The NBER is committed to undertaking and disseminating
unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business
professionals, and the academic community." Today, some 600
academics are NBER researchers, and they focus on "four types of
empirical research: developing new statistical measurements,
estimating quantitative models of economic behavior, assessing the
effects of public policies on the U.S. economy, and projecting the
effects of alternative policy proposals." One of their best known
projects is the dating of U.S. recessions and expansions.
NBER working papers are available here; abstracts are free. The
papers are free to subscribers of the hard copy series, and to
computers in non-OPEC or non-OECD countries (determined by the
"top-level-domain" of the computer, and "reverse name-lookup" must
be functioning). If neither of these holds, papers can be
purchased. Papers from before the "Internet era" are available too,
and were recently reduced in size to speed their download.
Besides working papers, you can also read about their other
publications. This includes not only their many books, but their
free "Digest" and "NBER Reporter" which summarizes particularly
interesting research.
They offer two e-mail notification services. One is for their
working papers (which can be customized by keywords by author, title
or abstract, as well as JEL category) and the other is for releases
of government economic statistics. It sends a URL when when data is
scheduled to be released. Both of these require free registration.
Other NBER offerings are described elsewhere. Their data
holdings are described in
NBER Data Library
as is their
NBER's Macro-Historical Database ,
TAXSIM , and
New Ph.D.s in Economics (NBER) .
Finally, they offer all sorts of information about themselves and
their varied programs.
http://www.nber.org/
