Internet resources
Chapter 8: Unemployment and Inflation

Web assignments:

1. Recent Macroeconomic Performance
2. U.S. Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions
3. Problems in Measuring Unemployment
4. Controversy over Labour Statistics
5. How the Government Measures Unemployment

Web materials related to topics discussed in Chapter 8

Bureau of Labor Statistics - Most Requested Series

The most requested labor market statistics (including statistics for local and regional areas).

Comparative Civilian Labor Force Statistics: Ten Countries, 1959-1996.

On this page, the BLS provides comparative labor market statistics for 10 major developed economies.

Consumer Price Index Conversion Tables (provided by Robert Sahr)

A listing of conversion factors needed to convert prices from any year between 1800 and 1996 into 1996 dollars.

Consumer Price Index Home Page

This page, provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, provides information about the construction of the CPI.

Economic Chart Dispenser

This site, provided by Ted Bos, provides online graphs for an extensive collection of economic data series.

Economic Report of the President 1998

The Economic Report of the President contains a good discussion of recent U.S. macroeconomic performance.

Employment and Unemployment Statistics: Most Recent Release

This site, provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, contains the most recent statistical information on U.S. labor market conditions.

The Inflation Calculator (by S. Morgan Friedman)

This online inflation calculator converts nominal prices from any year between 1800 and 1997 into a price measured in terms of any base year (in this same time period). All conversions are based on CPI data.

Inflation Calculator (NASA)

This Java Script based calculator uses the implicit GDP deflator to perform conversions from nominal prices to real prices (for any year between 1940 and the present -- in fact estimated values of the implicit GDP deflator can be used to convert prices up until the year 2003). The use of this site, however, requires a JavaScript enabled browser.

Macroeconomic data sites

An extensive collection of links to sources of current and historical macroeconomic data.

Related resources:

Other economic resources

This page contains a set of links to economic resources that may be of interest to introductory economics students.