Working with Working Papers
Several large organizations, both national and international publish "Working Papers." These documents describe research in progress and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate and suggestions before final publication; in general, these papers eventually are published as articles in journals or chapters in books. The early publication of the papers allows those interested to see the work-in-progress quickly and enhances awareness of research that is taking place. The Libraries of The Claremont Colleges receive many of these papers, in paper and in many cases online, and make them accessible through Blais (search by keyword, title, author, or organization name), or through the organization's web site. Two prominent and heavily-used examples of this type of publication are the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), www.nber.org and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), www.imf.org . Both the NBER and the IMF publications are indexed in the EconLit database.
The NBER, founded in 1920, is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization whose purpose is to promote a greater understanding of how the economy works; the NBER undertakes and disseminates economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community. A wide variety of research studies have been done at the NBER, resulting in 16 of the 31 American Nobel Prize winners in Economics. More than 600 professors of economics and business presently teaching at universities around the country are NBER researchers and the leading scholars in their fields. The NBER associates 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 proposal.
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 184 member countries, established to promote international monetary cooperation and exchange stability, to foster economic growth and high levels of employment, and to provide temporary and financial assistance to countries needing to ease balance of payments adjustment. Working Papers cover a wide range of topics, such as trade, globalization, fiscal policy, econometric models, consumption, exchange rate volatility, etc. In addition to its Working Papers series, the IMF also publishes the journal, IMF Staff Papers. The objective of IMF Staff Papers is to publish high quality research by IMF staff and invited guests on a variety of topics of interest to a broad audience including academics and policymakers in the IMF member countries. The papers selected for publication in the journal are subject to an extensive review process using both internal and external referees.
For more information, please contact Linda Gunter.