The present article describes recent developments related to the study of libraries in the field of economics. In terms of scope, there is considerable variation in economic applications, with research themes ranging from cost–benefit analyses to the impacts of libraries on educational outcomes, for example. In terms of approaches, the vast majority of articles in the field correspond to empirical studies employing library data, although there is some variation in terms of aggregation. In general, a first look at this burgeoning literature divides its main contributions into two broad sets: (1) one focused on the long-term effects of public libraries over economic outcomes and (2) another focused on the use of libraries as naturally occurring laboratories for the test of economic theories. Although there is not a common theme underlying the majority of contributions here surveyed, there are still sizable opportunities for economists – and social scientists, in general – who want to explore the research potential of libraries.

中文翻译：

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图书馆经济学

本文介绍了经济学领域图书馆研究的最新进展。就范围而言，经济应用存在相当大的差异，例如，研究主题从成本效益分析到图书馆对教育成果的影响。就方法而言，该领域的绝大多数文章都对应于利用图书馆数据的实证研究，尽管在聚合方面存在一些差异。总的来说，乍一看这一新兴文献，将其主要贡献分为两大类：（1）一类关注公共图书馆对经济成果的长期影响，（2）另一类关注图书馆作为自然发生的使用测试经济理论的实验室。尽管这里调查的大多数贡献没有一个共同的主题，但对于想要探索图书馆研究潜力的经济学家和社会科学家来说，仍然有相当大的机会。