LibGuides: Heinz College: 90-736 Public Finance: Government Information

Other useful research guides

Government Documents (United States)
This thorough guide provides information about how to find government documents at the federal, state and regional levels.
Federal Policy Resources
This guide provides resources for finding federal-level policy documents, think-tank reports, statistics, public opinion data and more.
Policy Analysis
This guide provide resources for conducting and writing policy analysis and links to guides for state, federal and local level research.
Business Resources
A comprehensive guide of all our resources related to business, industry, market and company research.

Other government resources

Internal Revenue Service
The website of the United States' tax collection agency which administers the Internal Revenue Code enacted by Congress.
Office of Management and Budget
"OMB’s mission is to assist the President in meeting his policy, budget, management and regulatory objectives and to fulfill the agency’s statutory responsibilities."
Internal Revenue Code
The IRS provide this website to explore and search the full Internal Revenue Code (via the Legal Information Institute website), as well as other government tax information.

Statistical Resources

Census Data
Voluminous demographic data on the U.S. from national to zip code level.
Bureau of Economic Analysis
National, international, regional, and industry accounts measures, such as GDP, government expenditures, balance of payments, etc. Federal Reserve Economic Database.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics.
U.S. Census Bureau
This is the Census Bureau's homepage and portal to census data and statistics.
Data.gov
The US government's open data portal. Provides a one-stop location for searching data from across US government agencies and branches.
FRED - Economic Data from the Federal Reserve
816,000 economic data time series from 107 national, international, public, and private sources, along with tools for interaction, display, and dissemination.
National Center for Education Statistics
Primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education.
Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS--University of Minnesota - Minnesota Population Center)
Two groups of data are available. IPUMS-USA consists of twenty-five samples of the American population drawn from the federal censuses of 1850 to 1990. IPUMS-International is dedicated to collecting and distributing census data from around the world.
United States Treasury
The United States Treasury website has a Data section that provides longitudinal data on topics like interest rates, national debt, treasury receipts and outlays, and more.

Government Documents

Congress.gov
"Congress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information. The site provides access to accurate, timely, and complete legislative information." It replaces the long-standing thomas.gov for legislative information.

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Congressional materials ca. 1789-present. Full text of hearings, Senate and House documents, the U.S. Serial Set (a collection of U.S. Government publications compiled under directive of the Congress), legislative histories, committee prints, etc. Database Guide
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Legal research database, with numerous libraries covering congressional publications, law publications, treaties, etc.
North American City Reports This link opens in a new window
Access over 130,000+ city publications from the five hundred largest cities in North America. Documents include budgets, surveys, statistical records, case studies, planning documents, training manuals, policy guidelines, and annual reports. This resource also includes documents from municipal and regional organizations and agencies and other agencies with coverage mostly from 2000-present.

CCH OmniTax

The CCH (Commerce Clearing House) OmniTax Library is provided for CMU students, faculty and staff via the IntelliConnect and the new AnswerConnect platforms. This resource provides a portal to a wealth of federal and state (and some international) tax information including case law, codes and statues, tax forms, federal publications and news.

Municipal Bond Information

Bloomberg This link opens in a new window
One terminal located in Hunt Library. Another located in Sorrells Library (4th fl. Wean Hall) – financial information system providing analysis and quotes for equities and indices, current company, industry and market news, and economic data for the countries of the world.

Additional terminals are located in the Tepper School. Please consult Tepper Technology Services for additional info and rules for accessing.
Mergent Bondviewer This link opens in a new window
U.S. corporate and municipal bond data: issue details, offering documents, ratings, coupon information, covenants, redemptions and historical pricing.
Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Data (MSRB) This link opens in a new window
As the primary regulator of the $3.7 trillion municipal security market, the MSRB collects and makes publicly available through its Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA). The trades represent transactions by investors and dealers in the over-the-counter market for municipal securities issued by municipal entities, including states, counties, cities and special tax districts. When off-campus, connect to Full VPN access. NOTE: Requires CMU email to access. After entering your CMU email address, a an email will be sent to you from WRDS with a link to access WRDS content.

Bloomberg

Bloomberg is a powerful and flexible platform for financial professionals that brings together real-time data on all market, news and research, analytics, and communication tools to make smarter, faster, more informed business decisions. Bloomberg has data on more than 5 million bonds, equities, commodities currencies, and funds. It covers almost every publicly traded company in the world, and has profiles on more than a million people.

For an overview of Bloomberg, see this Bloomberg Research Guide.

Quick guide to Bloomberg bond-related codes:

MACRO:

WB<GO> - World bond market - monitor and chart sovereign (gov’t) bond yields, spreads, and historical performance on 1 screen. Broken down geographically. Click on country of interest - more info on curves, benchmarks, etc.

MICRO:

F2<GO> - Government Bonds/Treasuries (general)
F6<GO> - Municipal Bonds (general)
YAS - yield & spread analysis - cool charting/graphing functions
DES - description - provides overview of each bond(s)
ST<GO> F6<MUNI> - state issued bonds.
CT<GO> F6<MUNI> - city issued bonds.

NEWS:

TOPBON<GO> - relevant bond news.