[June 2006] Well, life really is getting easier (or the rat race faster): this page is pretty obselete, I think, since I just noticed that in Google Scholar preferences you can turn on BibTeX links for all references. Thanks, Google!

Directory of BibTeX Databases for Economics

"BibTeX databases" are just text files containing bibliographic information for a list of works; BibTeX is the ages-old format used by LaTeX. One can accumulate them oneself by downloading individual entries (e.g. from IDEAS) or many entries at once (best BibTeX source I've found so far!: refworks.com) or by typing them in by hand. Hopefully, people coordinate a bit to minimise these two slow methods...

There are also different formats for citations and bibliographic entries in final documents (.sty, .bst files). This page is not concerned with those, as they are static and easy to find.

I am using the following format for bibliographic keys (and pdf file names) in order that authors and journal are included, and no filename-unfriendly characters. By example:

• alesina-barro-QJE2002
• alesina-barro-tenreyro-NBER2002

Please contact me for significant additions or updates. Thanks! [2005]

Databases by subject

• Shiro Takeda has some references (with poor keys) focused on International Trade and Environment.
  
  

Databases by journal

• These are from 1999. This site also proposes a standard for choosing keys (and file
  names): rkshukla's bib files. I recommend something slightly different (above).

Software

• elit2bib is a Perl program to convert EconLit entries into BibTeX format.

• BibDB is a BibTeX database manager for Windows
• EndNote provides tools to convert databases to BibTex

Random idea