POLI SCI 191: The Comparative Politics of Finance and Financial Regulation

Please note: this course guide was created during a previous semester, and is no longer being actively maintained. For a list of current course guides, please see http://lib.berkeley.edu/alacarte/course-guides. 

You can access UCB Library resources from off campus or via your laptop or other mobile device using one of two simple methods:

Proxy Server
After you make a one-time change in your web browser settings, the proxy server will ask you to log in with a CalNet ID or Library PIN when you click on the link to a licensed resource. See the setup instructions, FAQ, and Troubleshooting pages to configure your browser.

VPN (Virtual Private Network)
After you install and run the VPN "client" software on your computer, you can log in with a CalNet ID to establish a secure connection with the campus network.

Click on the image below to see a larger interactive version of the campus library map.

You can also view/download a PDF map of library locations. For library contact information and building addresses, visit our directory.

One of the largest hurdles of using Google is the amount you must weed through.  Some searches result in thousands of pages; who has time to go through all that?  You dont need to.  Did you know you can manipulate a regular Google search with a couple hacks to your search.  Its true!  Try these search "tricks" during your next google search.

• site:XXXXX  This search tells google to limit your search to a particular site or domain.  For instance, if you limit to site:berkeley.edu you would only search the Berkeley site.  Similarly site:.gov would search only sites ending in .gov, and site:.edu would search only sites ending in .edu.

• -XXXXX  Adding a minus/hyphen sign "-" to a term will remove results with that term.  This can be very helpfull when removing common words associated with your topic.

• filetype:XXXX  Using filetype: will only find certain file extentions (.doc, .pdf, .xcl, etc)

• "XXX XXXX" Putting double quotes around a phrase will find only that phrase.

You can also combine some of these search hacks, such as adding -site:nytimes.com to remove results from the New York Times website.  More search tricks can be found here.

Find a book that matches your topic and go to the call number range to browse. Check the references and bibliography.

Google Scholar. Functions as both a key word database for articles and books. It automatically connects to select licensed content held by the UC libraries. 

Google Books. Millions of scanned books worldwide.  Search the text of the books, view previews or "snippets" from books still in copyright, and read the full text of out-of-copyright books.  To read the text of a copyrighted book, use the Find in a Library link to locate the book at UC Berkeley or search OskiCat.

Oskicat. UC Berkeley libraries catalog. Includes records for most UCB library materials, including books, e-books, journal and e-journal titles, films and videos, maps, archival materials, and much more. See also the Quick Guide to Oskicat and Oskicat Tutorial.

Melvyl. Catalog for all UC Campus libraries, including selected libraries on campus not in Oskicat, e.g. the Boalt Law Library. 

These database can provide background information and in-depth analysis on regulations in the U.S. and around the world.

• Academic Search Complete
  A multidisciplinary index to articles in more than 10,900 journals and other publications in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese; full-text is available for over 5300 journals.
  
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  Indexes books, journals, and dissertations within the field of political science and related to international relations, law and politics, political economy, public administration, and public policy. (Search all CSA/Illumina Social Sciences databases.)
  
• CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)
  Indexes journals, books, policy briefs, working papers, and conference proceedings from research institutes worldwide related to international affairs analysis and advocacy materials. Also includes links to international affairs Internet sources.
  
• EconLit
  The most comprehensive index to scholarly journal articles in economics. It also lists books and dissertations, and indexes articles within 'collective works' (books consisting of collections of essays or individual papers). Most citations include a searchable abstract.
  
• International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)
  Indexes over 3000 journals, books, chapters, and book reviews in the fields of economics, political science, sociology, and anthropology from more than 100 countries. More than 70 languages are represented, with 30% percent of records published in languages other than English. (Search all CSA/Illumina Social Sciences databases.)
  
• Business Source Complete
  Provides full-text for more than 7,400 scholarly business journals and other sources, including nearly 1,100 peer-reviewed business publications. Offers information in nearly every area of business including management, economics, finance, accounting, international business, and more. Also includes other sources of full text information such as country economic reports from the EIU, Global Insight, ICON Group and CountryWatch and detailed company profiles for the world's 10,000 largest companies. For guidance on how to search, see Business Source Complete tutorial
  

Since much of the current regulatory information can be relatively new, the best sources of information may be news sources.  These sources can provide a lot of background, but indepth analysis may be lacking.

• Access World News
  Provides full-text information and perspectives from over 600 U.S. and over 700 international sources. Offers strong regional coverage, indexing more than California newspapers such as Contra Costa Times (1995-current), Sacramento Bee (1984-current), San Francisco Chronicle (1985-current), and San Jose Mercury News (1985-current). Search categories include: California newspapers (121 titles), Greater Los Angeles (54 titles), major metropolitan titles (13 titles), Spanish-language news sources (48 titles), the World (almost 2000 titles), US (855 titles).
  
• ProQuest Newspapers
  Indexes the New York Times (1999-present), Los Angeles Times (1985-present), Wall Street Journal (1982-present).
  
• LexisNexis Academic
  Includes over 6,000 individual titles of international, national and local newspapers and wire services; radio and television transcripts; and business, medical, industry, and legislative magazines, journals, and newsletters. Wide geographic coverage and translations from foreign-language sources, as well as news services like the Associated Press, Agence France Press, El Pais and Xinhua (New China) News Agency.
  
• Factiva
  Provides general and business news and information from more than 9,000 sources in 22 languages, including influential local, national and international newspapers, leading business magazines, trade publications, and news wires. Includes the exclusive combination of The Wall Street Journal (1979-present), the Financial Times, Dow Jones and Reuters newswires and the Associated Press, as well as Reuters Fundamentals, and Bureau van Dijk company profiles.
  

• ProQuest Congressional
  One stop shopping for U.S. congressional publications. Provides index and abstracts of congressional publications back to 1789, including full text of published Congressional Hearings from 1824-present (unpublished until 1979), full text Committee Prints from 1830-present, full text Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports from 1916-present, full text United States Congressional Serial Set (and its various former titles) from 1789-present, and legislative histories from 1970-present. For more information on how to find hearings, consult the Congressional Tutorials homepage
  
• Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet
  Provides access to a wide range of legislative information on the Congress, including the full text of the Congressional Record and bills from the 103rd to the present, as well as a directory of congressional committees and members of Congress. Excellent resource for finding quick, online legislative histories and the full-text of Congressional Committee reports.
  
• ProQuest Legislative Insight
  Provides access to more than 18,000 professionally researched legislative histories of US Law. Histories include the Public Law itself, all versions of related bills, law-specific Congressional Record excerpts, committee hearings, reports and prints, Presidential signing statements, and CRS reports. 1929-present
  
• Congressional Budget Office
  Provides access to federal budget and economic information including the Monthly Budget Review, Current Budget Projections, Historical Budget Data.
  
• CQ Congress Collection
  Provides an historical analysis of members of Congress, their legislative voting behavior, interest group ratings, public policy legislation, current committees, background information and definitions, and chronology related to US Congress. Part of the CQ Electronic Library collection.
  
• CQ Electronic Library
  A reference source on American politics and government that includes the following modules: CQ Congress Collection, CQ Political Handbook of the World, CQ Researcher Plus Archive, CQ Supreme Court, CQ Voting and Elections, CQ Washington Information Directory, CQ Weekly. Access individual modules or search across all CQ collections.
  

Traditional civic lessons seem to stop after the president signs a bill into law.  This is unfortunate since passing the law is only half of the story.  Laws passed by the U.S. Congress are generally written using broad language, and its up to the federal agencies, with assistence from the White House Office of Management and Budget, and public comments, to produce the regulations specifying how the law is to be interpreted. 

As illustrated by the above 9-step map the work involved in producing regulations is immense, but there are only 2 publications to use when researching regulations:

Federal Register- The Federal Register is published everyday (except on federal holidays) and provides proposed rules, final rules, announcements, regulatory agendas, and everything else related to the regulation process.  The Federal Register is abbreviated FR in legal citations. 

Code of Federal Regulations- Final rules and regulations published in the Federal Register are collected and published in the Code of Federal Regulations.  It is the current regulations in force.  This 50+ volume set is published annually in paper.  CFR is the legal citation for the Code of Federal Regulations.

The following are sources for regulatory information within the United States.

• Reg Info
  Provides lots of information on current regulations that are proposed, historic regulatory agendas, and other regulation information.
• Federal Register
  Established in the 1930's, the Federal Register is where proposed rules or changes to existing rules are published. This site also allows the public to comment on proposed regulations.
• Code of Federal Regulations
  This version of the Code of Federal Regulations is provided by The Legal Information Institute of Cornell University Law School. Search function is decent.
• Hein Online--UCB Only
  Provides full-text access to many government documents, including the all the regulatory publications going back to 1936. Can also be searched using legal citations. Once in the database, click on "Log in to HeinOnline," then scroll the webpage to "Federal Register Library." From here you can search the publication(s) you want.

• CQ Moneyline--UCB ONLY
  Provides tracking of the flow of money in politics at the federal level with some state information from 1980 to the present. Enables tracking of contributions from Political Action Committees (PACs), individual donors to politicians, elected officials, and party committees; follow soft money through 527 groups, and retrieve information on thousands of lobbyists, indexed by client and issue.
• OpenSecrets
  Launched by the Center for Responsive Politics, OpenSecrets allows for the tracking of money from special interest, lobbyist, and industry to congressional members. Covers 105th Congress (1997) to present.
• CQ Washington Information Directory--UCB ONLY
  Includes over 10,000 entries on federal agencies, congressional committees and interest groups in Washington, D.C. Searchable by subject category, organization type and name. Part of the CQ Electronic Library collection.

The following agencies can help you discover regulations relating to financial reform or change.

• Financial Stability Oversight Council
  A new council that brings together expertise from federal financial regulators, an insurance expert appointed by the President, and state regulators. Provides links to component agencies you can obtain more information from.
• Federal Reserve-Regulatory Reform
  Federal Reserves webpage on regulatory reform. Includes information on regulations proposed since July 2010.
• Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)
  The Federal Housing Finance Agency was created in 2008 in part to resolve some of the issues with the housing market. Can provide some information on housing and mortgage regulations.
• Commodities and Futures Trading Commission
  The Commodities and Futures Trading Commission regulates futures and option markets. You can use it to discover regulations, see comments, etc.

The following are some major financial bodies in the world. 

• G-20
  The Group of Twenty (G-20) is made up of the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the 20 major economies.
• Basel Committee
  The Basel Committee is made up of banking supervisory authorities to provide a forum for regular cooperation on banking supervisory matters. Of particular interest is BASEL III, developed in response to the financial regulation deficiencies revealed by the global financial crisis.
• Financial Stability Board
  Established in 2009, the Financial Stability Board is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system.
• EU Central Bank
  European Central Bank. The ECB is the central bank for Europe's single currency, the euro. The European Central Bank and the national central banks together constitute the Eurosystem, the central banking system of the euro area. The main objective of the Eurosystem is to maintain price stability: safeguarding the value of the euro.
• EU Investment Bank
  The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's financing institution. Its shareholders are the 27 Member States of the Union, which have jointly subscribed its capital. The EIB's Board of Governors is composed of the Finance Ministers of these States.
• Google the Ministry of Finance
  Use google to find the Finance Office of the country you are interested in. Search "Ministry of Finance X" where X is the country you are interested in.

• World Bank e-Library
  Includes more than 1,200 full-text World Bank publications. Topics covered include: economics and finance, public policy, education, international development, technology, poverty, gender, the environment, and more.
  
• PAIS International
  Indexes books, journals, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, and web sources related to public policy, politics, economics, and social issues worldwide. Includes publications from over 120 countries. Some of the indexed materials are published in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The Archive covers English-language material only. (Search all CSA/Illumina Social Sciences databases.)
  
• CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)
  Indexes journals, books, policy briefs, working papers, and conference proceedings from research institutes worldwide related to international affairs analysis and advocacy materials. Also includes links to international affairs Internet sources.
  
• World Development Indicators (WDI)
  Provides time series development indicators data (1960-present) for 210 countries. Includes tables for population, labor and employment, education, health, energy, urbanization, national accounts, purchasing power, trade, government finance, monetary, balance of payments, external debt, investment risk, taxes, prices and exchange rates, transport and communication, and information and technology. To access, click "Data from World dataBank" under Formats Available.
  

These resources will give you some detailed information on US companies.  Keep in mind that much information is available for publicly traded companies (ie Wall Street), while very little information is available for private companies.  For privately held companies, your best bet would be news sources and Business Source Complete. 

• Mergent Online
  Provides financial information on publicly traded U.S.and international companies. The database consists of the following components: U.S. and International Company Data, Archives, Annual Reports, Factsheets Plus, Factsheets Express, Institutional Holdings, Insider Trades, Expanded Long-Term Debt, Equity Portraits, and Corporate Bond Portraits.
  
• Thomson Research Investext
  Provides analyst reports, conference call minutes, and other information on publicly traded companies. Note: works with Internet Explorer.
  
• Business Source Complete
  Provides full-text for more than 7,400 scholarly business journals and other sources, including nearly 1,100 peer-reviewed business publications. Offers information in nearly every area of business including management, economics, finance, accounting, international business, and more. Also includes other sources of full text information such as country economic reports from the EIU, Global Insight, ICON Group and CountryWatch and detailed company profiles for the world's 10,000 largest companies. For guidance on how to search, see Business Source Complete tutorial
  
• Factiva
  Provides general and business news and information from more than 9,000 sources in 22 languages, including influential local, national and international newspapers, leading business magazines, trade publications, and news wires. Includes the exclusive combination of The Wall Street Journal (1979-present), the Financial Times, Dow Jones and Reuters newswires and the Associated Press, as well as Reuters Fundamentals, and Bureau van Dijk company profiles.
  

• Library Subject Guides
• Library Course Guides

RSS Feed
Bookmark This