Business and Commerce Resources
U.S. business, commerce and advertising databases, publications, and reports
- Beige Book
Contains separate reports and a summary of anecdotal information about current economic conditions gathered from each of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts. Published eight times per year. Also includes an archive.Business and Nonprofits
Conduct business online with the U.S. Government including filing taxes and wage reports, obtaining an export license or a state license, and obtaining or verifying an employer ID number or employee's Social Security number. Also includes business-related guides. - Business.GOV
Tools, guides, and forms for starting and maintaining a business and doing business with the government of the United States. - Census of Construction Industries
- Consumer Price Indexes (Bureau of Labor)
- County Business Patterns, 1977-2000
- Economic Indicators
- Export-Import Bank of the United States
Includes links for small businesses, U.S. exporters, international buyers, lenders, and news media. - Federal Business Opportunities
(formerly Commerce Business Daily) Known alternately as FedBizOpps.GOV and FBO.gov. Serves as a one-stop virtual marketplace to connect commercial vendors and the entire Federal contracting community. Allows participants to post, search, monitor, and retrieve commercial exchanges. - Federal Reserve System
- FRASER (Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research)
Contains links to scanned images (PDF format) of historic/economic statistical publications, releases, and documents including the annual Economic Report of the President. Coverage starts with the 19th and early 20th century for some economic and banking reports. Includes a link to Allan Meltzer’s A History of the Federal Reserve Volume 1: 1913-1951. - FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
Contains thousands of U.S. economic times series organized into 13 categories some of which include "vintage" data. Also includes regional and county-level data. Download data in Microsoft Excel and text formats. View charts of data series. - GeoFRED
Federal Reserve data-mapping tool that displays color-coded unemployment, labor force and population data on the state, MSA, and county levels. Select among thousands of data series and customize printable maps according to size, scope, and detail - Liber8
Newsletter designed by librarians from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis for university and government document librarians, students, and the general public. In a non-technical manner provides economic information, articles, data, and websites from the Federal Reserve system and other government agencies. - Interactive Tariff and Trade DataWeb (USITC)
Provides international trade statistics and U.S. tariff data (U.S. export statistics, U.S. tariffs, U.S. future tariffs, and U.S. tariff preference information). - Measuring Electronic Business
U.S. Census Bureau definitions and concepts of e-business. - National Economic Accounts (Bureau of Economic Analysis)
Provides statistics for the following topics: Gross Domestic Product including National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA); Personal Income and Outlays; Corporate Profits; Fixed Assets; Research and Development; Government Current Receipts and Expenditures; Supplemental Estimates; and Conferences and Meetings. - National Trade Data Bank (NTDB) Guide
University of Minnesota's guide to alternative sources for NTDB information. NTDB CD-Roms ceased with Oct. 2000 and are continued by Stat-USA. This guide shows alternative locations for some titles that exist independently. - 1992 Characteristics of Business Owners Survey
- North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) online information page
- Securities and Exchange Commission
- EDGAR
Corporate Securities and Exchange Commission filings - Calculators for Investors
- Online Publications for Investors - Subject Listing
- Small Business (GPO Pathway Services Browse Topic)
- Small Business Administration
- Standard Industrial Classifications (SIC) System
Browse by topic or search the SIC manual to access information for a specified 2,3, or 4-digit SIC. Also contains links for OSHA inspection data. - STAT-USA
U.S. Department of Commerce collection of business, economic, and trade databases that includes information from over 40 government agencies. Archived economic information including America's Top 50 Releases is available through its State of the Nation Archive. Also includes U.S. travel and tourism (arrivals/departures) statistics, primary market transactions, and a monthly U.S. Treasury yield chart based on CMT (Constant Maturity Treasury) rates. ( Accessible to the Rice community or at the Library only.) - Transportation Information from the Economic Census
- Union Reports and Collective Bargaining Agreements: Online Public Disclosure Room
View and print union annual financial reports and reports filed by unions, union officers and employees, employers, and labor relations consultants for the year 2000 onward. Also contains links to order reports for 1999 and earlier. - ZIP Business Patterns --ZBP
Contains business data for 40,000 zip codes. Provides a link to download data for multiple zip codes. - Advertising World
University of Texas' extensive collection of advertising links. - BEA Regional Economic Accounts
Economic data for states and cities from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. Also includes specialized data such as for Hurricane Katrina. Uses the Regional Input-Output Modeling System (RIMS II).Consumer Expenditure Survey
Presents two surveys, the the quarterly Interview Survey and the Diary Survey. Provides information on the buying habits of American consumers. Includes data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics provided by the U.S. Census Bureau's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
