nber.org APIwww.nber.org ↗
Search and retrieve NBER working papers by topic, program, or keyword. Access titles, abstracts, authors, DOIs, and publication dates via 2 REST endpoints.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/1f177605-b040-467e-91e7-65b6a1d40fc4/search_papers?query=machine+learning&sort_by=relevance&per_page=5' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Search NBER papers with filtering by content type, topic, or program. Supports pagination and sorting. The query parameter influences relevance ranking; use content_type, topic, or program facets for filtering.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| page | integer | Page number (1-based). |
| query | string | Search query for relevance ranking. |
| topic | string | Topic filter (e.g., Macroeconomics, Labor Economics, Financial Economics). Use %COMMA% for commas in topic names. |
| program | string | Program filter (e.g., Monetary Economics, Labor Studies, Corporate Finance). |
| sort_by | string | Sort order. Accepted values: date, relevance. |
| per_page | integer | Results per page. Accepted values: 20, 50, or 100. |
| content_type | string | Content type filter. Accepted values: working_paper, chapter, article, conference, book, video, center_paper, dataset. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"page": "integer, current page number",
"query": "string or null, the search query used",
"papers": "array of paper objects with title, authors, abstract, date, paper_number, url, doi, type, new_this_week",
"sort_by": "string, sort order used",
"per_page": "integer, results per page",
"total_pages": "integer, total number of pages",
"total_results": "integer, total matching papers"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"page": 1,
"query": "machine learning",
"papers": [
{
"doi": "10.3386/w31285",
"url": "https://www.nber.org/papers/w31285",
"date": "May 2023",
"type": "Working Paper",
"title": "The Economics of Financial Stress",
"authors": [
{
"name": "Dmitriy Sergeyev",
"profile_url": "https://www.nber.org/people/dmitriy_sergeyev"
}
],
"abstract": "We study the psychological costs of financial constraints...",
"paper_number": "w31285",
"new_this_week": false
}
],
"sort_by": "relevance",
"per_page": 20,
"total_pages": 1784,
"total_results": 35673
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the nber.org API
The NBER API exposes 2 endpoints for searching and retrieving National Bureau of Economic Research publications. Use search_papers to query across working papers, articles, books, and other content types with filters for topic, program, and sort order, or use get_paper to fetch a specific working paper's full abstract, author list with profile URLs, associated programs, DOI, and issue date by paper number.
Search NBER Publications
The search_papers endpoint accepts an optional query string for relevance ranking and supports facet filters via content_type (e.g., working_paper, chapter, book, video), topic (e.g., Macroeconomics, Labor Economics), and program (e.g., Monetary Economics, Corporate Finance). Results can be sorted by date or relevance, and page size is configurable to 20, 50, or 100 results. Each item in the papers array includes title, authors, abstract, date, paper_number, url, doi, type, and a new_this_week flag. Pagination metadata — total_results, total_pages, and current page — is returned alongside the results.
Retrieve Individual Papers
The get_paper endpoint accepts a working paper ID either with or without the w prefix (e.g., w10567 or 10567) and returns a single paper object. The response includes the full abstract, an authors array where each entry has both name and profile_url, a programs array listing associated NBER research programs, the canonical paper_number with w prefix, issue_date as a month-and-year string, doi, and the direct url to the paper page.
Coverage and Content Types
NBER publishes working papers across dozens of research programs covering macroeconomics, finance, labor, health, and more. The search_papers endpoint surfaces not just working papers but also chapters, conference materials, center papers, and videos hosted on nber.org. The new_this_week boolean on each search result lets you identify recently released papers without sorting manually by date.
- Monitor newly released NBER working papers by filtering
search_papersoncontent_type=working_paperand checking thenew_this_weekfield. - Build a literature review tool that queries papers by
topic(e.g.,Financial Economics) and exportsdoiandabstractfields for citation management. - Track research output by NBER program using the
programfilter (e.g.,Labor Studies) and paginate through full result sets. - Enrich an academic database with author profile URLs and associated programs by calling
get_paperfor each known paper number. - Surface related NBER research in an economics news application by searching on a keyword
querysorted bydate. - Aggregate paper metadata — titles, DOIs, issue dates — for bibliometric analysis across multiple content types.
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does NBER have an official public developer API?+
What does `get_paper` return beyond what `search_papers` includes?+
get_paper returns the full abstract, individual author profile_url links, and a programs array listing the NBER research programs associated with the paper. The search_papers endpoint returns a truncated view of these fields suitable for listing and filtering, while get_paper is the authoritative source for a single paper's complete metadata.Can I filter search results by author name?+
search_papers endpoint does not expose a dedicated author filter. You can include an author name in the general query parameter for relevance-ranked results, but there is no strict author facet. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add an author-scoped filter endpoint.Does the API return full PDF download links for papers?+
url field pointing to the paper's page on nber.org and a doi identifier, but does not return direct PDF download URLs. NBER restricts full-text PDF access to subscribers. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to surface any publicly accessible download links where they exist.How should I handle topic names that contain commas?+
topic parameter uses %COMMA% as a placeholder for literal commas in topic names. Standard URL-encoded commas may be interpreted as list separators, so substitute any commas in the topic string with %COMMA% before sending the request.