Resources of the Week: International Business and Economics Statistics (Part 1)
Resources of the Week: International Business and Economics Statistics (Part 1)
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor
We've had a request -- inquiring minds would like to know where to find international biz stats on the Web. We actually turned up a number of promising fishing holes for you to explore. We'll introduce you to some of them this week and finish up with the rest in next week's ROTW posting.
Davidson Data Center and Network (DDCN) is an integrated, fully searchable database on transition and emerging markets. DDCN archives and provides free access to socio-economic micro and macro data on transition economies.
This is a three-faceted resource:
Data Locator -- DDCN points to data resources, primarily available on the web, held by other institutions (both free data and from commercial vendors).
Archiving and Dissemination -- DDCN also archives and disseminates data. Data sets that can be made available in the public domain are downloadable directly from this website at no charge. To save files from this site, we only require a one-time, free registration.
Data Exchanges -- DDCN facilitates data exchanges between researchers and between institutions. For data that cannot be made available in the public domain, DDCN assumes an active role in the brokering of access.
What, exactly, can you find here? If you browse by subject, you'll see...
Macro Data (Comprehensive Databases, Macroeconomics and Growth, Monetary Data, Fiscal Data, Prices, Finance and Banking, Labor Force, Employment and Earnings. External Sector Data, Enterprises and Privatization, Poverty and Income Inequality, Population and Social Indicators, Science and Technology, Economic Sectors, Governance and Anti-Corruption)
Micro Data (Labor Force Surveys, Household Budget Surveys, Census Data, Public Opinion Surveys, Other Surveys, Administrative Records)
Firm Level Data (Enterprise Surveys, Bank Surveys, Other Firm Surveys, Administrative Data)
You can also browse by country, use the simple search form on the home page, or take advantage of an advanced search form that offers a multiplicity of options via dropdown menus and check boxes. Note that not all the data available here is free.
DDCN "is funded jointly by the William Davidson Institute (WDI) and a National Science Foundation (NSF) seed grant." WDI, at the University of Michigan, "is a non-profit, independent, research and educational institute dedicated to developing and disseminating expertise on issues affecting firms in transition & emerging market economies."
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+ Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, provides "the European Union with statistics at European level. By harmonising statistics from the European statistical system (ESS) to a single methodology, the statistics are made comparable." This is a scary-large, complex site. If you think you're going to be visiting here regularly, you may want to download and watch a special three-minute Flash-based animation (zip file) that "gives a short overview on Eurostat's mission and its activities. It shows all the products available. The show gives a guide to the publications and services and informs how to consult and extract the data stored in the existing databases. It also explains how to make self extractions for personalised tables." There's also a comprehensive FAQ.
Alternately, you can check the Eurostat Press Centre, where you can browse the press release archive or search these and/or a broad range of other Eurostat collections via a simple-to-use form. You can also restrict your search to one or more major "themes" -- General and regional statistics, Economy and finance, Population and social conditions, Industry/trade/services, Agriculture and fisheries, External trade, Transport, Environment and energy, Science and technology.
The site also offers a collection of RSS feeds (most are country-specific). A couple other items of note: a Release Calendar for EU business/economic/financial indicators, and "a continuously updated table (xls) containing the main euro-indicators for the euro area, the EU27, the Member States and, when available, for the US and Japan."
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+ globalEDGE, a comprehensive international business portal from Michigan State University's International Business Center, offers an extensive and well-annotated selection of Statistical Data Sources. The sites are also rated as to usability and content, and they are grouped into three sections: Global, Regional, and Country-Specific.
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+ International Finance bibliography, from the Gelman Library at George Washington University.
This bibliography includes major sources of multi-country financial information available at Gelman Library. It does not include sources of financial data for individual countries. Other relevant bibliographies are International Economic Statistics and Indicators, Stocks, and Bonds. This page is arranged in the following sections:
Note that this bibliography contains print as well as online resources, and some of the electronic resources are restricted to the GWU community -- though you may be able to get access through your own library or institution.
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Remember to watch for Part 2 of this posting next week.
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