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Working papers are articles distributed before publication in a journal, although some were never published.
University of Minnesota Papers:
Other Institutions:
We have older working papers on the shelf alphabetically by school, then chronologically by paper number. We acquired these papers in an exchange of Minnesota papers with other economics departments around the world. Working papers were not collected by the University Library system, and few economics departments had such an extensive collection as ours. When we moved in May 2008, we downsized the collection -- titles available on the internet were tossed as well as many from overseas institutions. Please ask for assistance if you cannot find a paper; we do have a finding aid for older papers.
Many working papers have been published. But if you do a search in EconLit, you may only find the paper version if you searched by keywords found in an older paper’s abstract. Earlier journal entries did not have abstracts, so the published version could be missed in an initial search. To find published versions, search EconLit by the author and words from the title (keep in mind that sometimes titles can slightly change). This will usually find the published citation unless it is in an un-indexed book or obscure journal.
If you cannot find a paper you’re looking for by using Google or on a professor’s website, double-check the site RePec (http://repec.org/) I also have links to a number of working paper sites in the U.S. and other countries by institution (Wendy's Working Paper Website).
A list of older papers which never appeared in a formal working paper series can be found here. Leo Hurwicz’s papers: http://www.econ.umn.edu/news/hurwicz/HurwiczPapers11-3-09.pdfA chronological, searchable list of older papers that we collected is here: Discussion Papers.
The File Cabinet Collection (Papers and reprints not in our collected numbered Series)