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Expanded Digital Library

The Digital Library has recently undergone a major expansion. It was first launched in June 2006, and now includes 1,036 articles from the Survey of Current Business, spanning from 1934 to 1992. The latest update, brought online April 14, 2008, introduces 384 new articles from 1960 through 1979, adding significantly to the historical record that is available online.

Read more about the Digital Library Expansion...

Welcome to the BEA digital library of seminal documents related to the history of the U.S. national economic accounts. The library includes key Survey of Current Business articles from the 1930s through the 1990s, early reports by the Department of Commerce on the measurement of national income and product, volumes from the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, Annual Review articles through 1974, and selected other documents of special historical significance.

Please browse the collections from the links below or take advantage of our powerful search engine, which utilizes Optical Character Recognition to allow full-text searches of the original documents.

Survey of Current Business: about
Articles from the Survey of Current Business that describe methods and concepts for key macroeconomic measures; report on the health of the U.S. economy; and analyze important economic issues, trends, and events.
- Survey of Current Business (articles from 1934-49): browse
- Survey of Current Business (articles from 1950-59): browse
- Survey of Current Business (articles from 1960-69): browse
- Survey of Current Business (articles from 1970-79): browse
- Survey of Current Business (articles from 1980-89): browse
- Survey of Current Business (articles from 1990-99): browse

Conference on Research in Income and Wealth (1937-1938): about | browse
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) volumes on Studies in Income and Wealth that include formative work on the methods and concepts for measuring national income and product by experts in and out of the government.

Survey of Current Business Annual Reviews (1937 - 1975): about | browse
The collection of all annual review articles published in the Survey of Current Business from 1937 to 1975. Topics covered annually include a review of economic trends in different sectors and national income and product reports.

Selected Other Documents (1932 - 1995) : about | browse
Assorted documents published or authored by the Department of Commerce. This collection has recently been updated to include an article discussing the 1990 BEA Quarterly Econometric model, and now also features a 1977 report on improving gross national product. Other articles of special significance are also presented.

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Last updated: Friday, March 7, 2008