Economic Sciences

Purpose: Economic sciences materials purchased for the library support teaching and research at the undergraduate level, the graduate level through the Ph.D. and post-doctoral and faculty research. Economic sciences have a strong focus on quantitative economics, economic theory, agricultural economics, and agribusiness. Interest in economic sciences is also found in most social science departments, in particular Business, Engineering, and Mathematics.

1. Languages: English is the primary language of the collection. Works published in French or German are purchased selectively, except when in English translation. Normally no special effort is made to acquire the original. Works published originally in languages other than French, German, or English are ordinarily purchased only in English translation. However, major works in economic thought from ancient times to present as well as statistical yearbooks are purchased no matter the language.
2. Chronological Guidelines: Emphasis is on the 21st and 20th centuries with a strong secondary focus on the 18th and 19th centuries. Works dealing with other periods are acquired selectively.
3. Geographical Guidelines: Primary emphasis is on the United States and Europe. Works on economics in other foreign countries, especially those of the former Soviet Union, China, Japan, and developing countries are also collected. Works on the economies of the Pacific Northwest are collected extensively.
4. Treatment of the Subject: Lower division textbooks are normally purchased only on faculty request. Popular works and upper division texts are purchased selectively.
5. Types of Material: Materials acquired are in the form of books, electronic books, periodicals, indexes, and full-text electronic databases. In addition, pertinent reference works, proceedings of conferences, transactions and reports, statistical publications of governments, the United Nations and related agencies such as OECD, IMF, other supra-national entities such as EEC, NAFTA, GATT, ASEAN, OPEC, etc., and statistical yearbooks from all countries of the world are collected extensively. Datasets are collected selectively.
6. Date of Publication: Emphasis is on currently published materials. No preference is given to original editions over reprints. Microforms and electronic media are acceptable alternatives for journal back files and for materials prohibitively expensive in original format.
7. Other General Considerations: TThe University of Idaho's "full depository" U.S. federal documents library and the UI Law Library provide additional resources for students of economics (especially in the fields of regulatory economics and public finance). The WSU Library provides access to datasets in economic behavior and attitudes and related social science data through full membership in the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). Students in Economic Sciences have participated in the ICPSR summer training program in quantitative methods.