Economics 29:
Economic History of the United States, 1865-1965

Professor Barbezat
Spring 2006

Research Tool Kit

• EconLit -- Premier database of articles and books in economics. Many have links to fulltext.
• Historical Statistics of the United States (trial version, through 6/9/06)
• NBER Working Papers and EconPapers from Research Papers in Economics
• JSTOR Large backfile of fulltext journals, including economics. Current titles through Project Muse.
• Oxford Dictionary of Economics
• ICPSR abstracts and data sets in the world's largest archive of computerized social science data.
• Style Manuals How to cite that article; and EndNote software to format them.
  

Finding historical data for your research paper -- four major strategies:

1. Start by finding articles on your topic. This can work even if you don't have a well defined topic -- EconLit is a great place to start. Enter some search words that interest you, and take a look at the results. Many times the database will provide related concepts to narrow or expand your search. For example, say you want to explore the economic impact of slavery on Post-Civil War African Americans, particularly the lack of literacy. The following record shows an article on that topic. It also gives you links at the bottom of the record to articles on related topics. AND it tells you the data the author relied on... in this case, IPUMS and the Decennial Census. (More about those in number 2.)

   Odds are that if you're interested in a topic, someone else has been as well. You can then use the data in a different way from the author, building on the work that s/he has done (and giving credit, of course). This same strategy works with books. You can start by searching the Four College Library Catalog with a keyword or two, and then branch out to related books by using the subject headings at the bottom of the record. Once you have the book in hand, you can check the footnotes and bibliography for the sources.



2. Using the census. The Decennial Census is the most detailed social and economic data source available for the United States, going back to 1790. Unlike other surveys, it has data for very small geographic areas and for small population groups. But it has varied over time -- both in terms of who is counted, and the questions that are asked. Here's a table showing what was asked from 1790-2000. How race was defined and who was counted also varied -- this table shows the different racial categories used each decade.

   The library has all the census volumes in paper, at the following call numbers. Sometimes it's useful to look through the bound volumes -- the narrative has additional information not in the tables, and flipping through can be a good way to get a sense of what's there. TIP: You can also scan the hard copy tables with the newer versions of Adobe and if it will enable OCR (optical character recognition) and let you bring the tables into Excel.) But sometimes you just want to search and download the data directly. The University of Virginia, in conjunction with ICPSR, has created a very useful searchable Historical Census Browser for 1790 - 1960. They have included selected (not all) variables, and it does not have cities or towns -- the smallest geographic area is the county. The U.S. Census Bureau also provides selected historic data electronically (pdf), including scanned census volumes.

   In order to protect the privacy of individuals, the completed individual questionnaires are not available for 70 years after the census is completed. This detailed data for 1790 - 1930 (by family name) is available via AncestryLibrary.

3. IPUMS-Integrated Public Use Microdata Series Sometimes called the micro-census, IPUMS provides data based on individual records from 1850-2004. It is sample data (the largest sample is 1%) and identifying information (tying it to a specific person) is blocked for 70 years. "The thirty-eight samples, which draw on every surviving census from 1850-2000, collectively comprise our richest source of quantitative information on long-term changes in the American population." It is raw data, needing SAS or SPSS and a freely available codebook to make meaningful.
4. Historical statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 This title is available in paper at the reference desk, as well as in the stacks to be checked out. This is a terrific tool that indexes publications from a wide array of federal agencies. It is a great index to statistics on labor, education, public health, agriculture, etc. The call number for the copy at the reference desk as well as in the stacks is x HA202 .B87 1975. It is also an excellent way to identify the source of the data -- it has great footnotes at the bottom of every table that explains the source. Sometimes the table won't have exactly the years or variables that you want, but going back to the source can get you there. (And again, you can scan these paper tables using Adobe with OCR and import the tables directly into Excel.) And for even more detailed data, each year a Statistical Abstract of the United States is published. We have this in paper at the reference desk for current year, and for previous years (back to 1878) it is in the stacks at HA202 .U58. It is available in pdf.

TOP

Comments regarding this page should be directed to: Susan Edwards

Amherst College > Library > Research > Economics 29