This document provides guidance on conducting a literature review for research in economics. It defines a literature review as a summary of current knowledge on a topic based on research evidence and arguments. The document outlines the key components of a literature review, including determining the scope of inclusion, selecting sources, using research tools like EconLit, and developing search techniques for the review.

1. Research Methods in Economics ECO 3132
Linda Hauck
Business Librarian
Linda.Hauck@villanov.edu

2. Literature Review
“A literature review is a Inclusion Determined by
summary of what is
currently known about
some issue or field on the • Subject
basis of research • Geography
evidence, and/or of what
lines of argument there • Time period
are in relation to that • Research
issue or field.” method/design
Hammersley, M. (2004). Literature review. In M. Lewis-
Beck, A. Bryman, & T. Liao (Eds.), Encyclopedia of
social science research methods. (pp. 578-580).
Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi:
10.4135/9781412950589.n503

3. Topic Selection
Sources Orientation
• Personal Interests • Wikipedia and other
• Internships encyclopedias
• Course work • Library Catalog
• The news

4. Research Tools
Essential EconLit with Full Text
Faculty Top PicksGoogle Scholar,
Social Science Research Network,
Social Science Citation Index
Interdisciplinary PubMed, Medline,
ERIC, Education Full Text,
Sociological Abstracts, Worldwide
Political Science Abstracts, others on
Subject Guides

5. EconLit Content
• Scholarly/Peer Reviewed Articles
– Theory
– Research
– Reviews
• Books-and chapters
• Working Papers

6. Searching EconLit: Techniques
• Synonyms and related terms
• Controlled vocabulary (JEL Classification)
• Truncat* and “phrase searching”
• TI: Field searching
• Boolean searching
AND (Green) OR (Red)

7. JEL Classifications

8. Sample Question
What factors are contributing to the
mancession (disproportionate gender
based unemployment)?

9. Practice
Send form with topic, JEL classifications and
one on point APA citation.
1. Does income inequality contribute to
economic instability?
2. What is the economic return on a college
degree?

10. Getting Full Text & Chasing Citations
Journal Finder,
Search
Catalog or
EZborrow
Google it!

11. Finding Data
• Leverage Data from Literature Review
• Subject Page, Economics, Statistics for
frequently used sources
http://library.villanova.edu/research/subject
-guides/economics-and-
statistics/#Statistics
• Statistical Insights- General index

12. Final Tips
• Allow time for exploration and interlibrary
loan
• Search systematically, but hope
serendipity is on your side.