Selected Resources for Economists:
Emory's Electronic Data Center
General Social Science Data Resources
U.S./Domestic Data Sources
International Data Sources
CD-ROM/Non-Web Databases
Emory's Electronic Data Center (217 Woodruff Library)
http://einstein.library.emory.edu - The Data Center home page
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/links.shtml - The Data Freeway, a thematically-organized collection of links to on-line data sources
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/help_index.shtml - Help Pages for databases and data management
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/citation_guide.html - Guide for citation of electronic data sources
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/contact.shtml - Data Center contact information and hours
GENERAL SOCIAL SCIENCE DATA RESOURCES
ICPSR (Inter-University
Consortium for Political and Social Research)
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/
The ICPSR is the largest collection of Social Science Data in the world. Topics included in the archive
include: economics, government, health care, crime, education, etc. This resource is also available via
Databases at Emory. The Data Center
also maintains an archive of ready-to-use ICPSR datasets which are accessible via the search engine on the Data
Center home page.
Fedstats
http://www.fedstats.gov/
Fedstats is a good starting place for data on the United States and contains
links statistical resources produced by the U.S. government.
Lexis-Nexis Statistical
Lexis-Nexis Statistical, which is available via Databases at Emory, allows patrons to
search for statistics from the U.S. government and other sources and download them directly into Microsoft
Excel.
U.S./DOMESTIC DATA SOURCES
Criminal Justice Data:
Bureau of Justice Statistics
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
The BJS provides a wealth of crime and criminal justice data compiled by the U.S. government and links to
available data on other government websites.
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD)
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/
The NACJD at the ICPSR contains a wealth of data relevant for scholars interested in crime/criminology. The
data cover topics such as offical crime statistics (at the national and state levels), surveys on attitudes
towards crime, surveys of crime victims, and the criminal justice system.
Demographics, Population, and Social Indicators:
American Fact Finder
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en
The American Fact Finder is an excellent starting point for data from the 1990 and 2000 versions of the U.S.
Census.
IPUMS (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series)
http://www.ipums.umn.edu/
The IPUMS project at the University of Minnesota has compiled samples of
microdata from the Census of Population and
Housing for 1850-2000. IPUMS also includes samples from the
Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey.
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
http://nces.ed.gov/
The NCES is one of best sources for data on education in the United States.
Economic Data:
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
http://www.bea.gov/
The BEA is an excellent source for economic data at both the national and subnational (state/local) level.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
http://www.bls.gov
The BLS contains much data on employment, wages, and prices, at both the national and sub-national levels. Be
warned that the website is not always easy to navigate.
County Business Patterns
http://www.census.gov/epcd/cbp/view/cbpview.html
The County Business Patterns contains much county-level data on employees and establishments in particular
industries.
Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED II)
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/
FRED II includes time-series data for variables such as GDP, interest rates, exchange rates, consumer prices, and
banking. Most of the data are from the 1950's onwards, though some series extend back prior to WWII.
Yahoo Finance
http://finance.yahoo.com/
A convenient source of market data. The site also offers historical quotes
that may be useful for time series studies.
INTERNATIONAL DATA SOURCES
Economic Data:
International Monetary Fund (IMF) International Financial Statistics
http://www.imfstatistics.org/imf/imfbrowser.aspx?branch=ROOT
The IFS is a standard source of statistics on various aspects of international
and domestic finance. Please note that this site is restricted to the
Emory community. This resource is also available via
Databases at Emory. There is also a
CD-ROM version of the IFS available in the Data Center.
Penn World Tables
PWT is a good starting point for basic world economic data
during the period 1950-2004. The most recent version of the PWT is available
at http://pwt.econ.upenn.edu/.
An older version with coverage from 1950-1992 (and some variables not
yet available in the newest version) can be found at http://datacentre.chass.utoronto.ca/pwt/.
SourceOECD (Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development)
http://new.sourceoecd.org/
SourceOECD is an online
service that provides full-text access to OECD studies, periodicals, and
statistics. Included are annuals, outlooks, policy reviews, conference
proceedings, analytical reports, guidelines, working papers, all periodicals,
and 27 statistical databases. This resource is also available via
Databases at Emory.
United Nations Commodity Statistics Trade Database (Comtrade)
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/comtrade/
The UN's Comtrade database is a good source for commodity-specific bilateral trade data. Users can create their
own extracts of data for both value and quantity of trade using different industrial classification codes and
download those extracts for later use. This resource is also available via
Databases at Emory.
World Bank Research Group
http://econ.worldbank.org/
The World Bank Research Group's site contains both papers and associated datasets from scholars affilated with
the World Bank.
World Development Indicators (World Bank)
http://devdata.worldbank.org/dataonline/
The World Development Indicators Website provides convenient access to nearly 600 indicators on over
200 countries. Data is generally available from 1960 forward. This resource is also available via
Databases at Emory. There is also a CD
version of the WDI available in the Data Center.
Political Data:
Database of Political Institutions
http://go.worldbank.org/2EAGGLRZ40
This database was put together in part by Phillip Keefer at the World Bank and provides data on the political
institutions and structures of different countries in the world from 1975 to 2006. Additional documentation are also available
here. Please note the authors' preferred
format for citing their data.
Political Risk Services (PRS) Group Data
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/Risk-Data.html
The Data Center's holdings include data resources from the
PRS Group and other sources that measure
"risk" in the form of political (in)stability and institutional quality (e.g. levels of corruption).
Social Indicators:
Global Market Information Database (GMID)
http://www.portal.euromonitor.com/portal
GMID is produced by Euromonitor International and contains time-series data (1977-present)
on a very wide range of economic and social indicators such as income, GDP, consumer expenditures, and
population demographics. The data are available through both Excel-ready spreadsheets and .pdf
reports. GMID is also accessible via
Databases at Emory.
PovertyNet: Data on Poverty
http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/data/index.htm
PovertyNet has brought together a variety of datasets pertaining to the study of poverty, along with other resources
relevant for international development and economics. Be warned - the World Bank tends to change addresses for
websites without warning.
World Bank Topics in Development
http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/thematic.htm
This site is a thematically-organized portal for data and bibliographic resources available at the World Bank's
website. The Bank has another such site here.
CD-ROM/NON-WEB DATABASES
Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) Microdata
The CES is conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and provides data
on the buying habits of consumers within the United States. For a given year, the data files consist of (a) quarterly
"interview" surveys and related expenditure data, which provide information on households' income, demographics, and expenses,
and (b) "diary" surveys that provide detailed data on short-term expenses for frequently-purchased items. The Data Center has
microdata files on CD-ROM from 1996-2005. Some CES microdata are
also available via the ICPSR and
via the National Bureau of Economic Research. Aggregated
data and statistics from the CES and more detailed information about the survey are
available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Current Population Survey Merged Outgoing Rotation Groups (MORG) Data
The CPS MORG Data consist of data from households that are being rotated out of the CPS sample, either temporarily or permanently.
The files contain data for items such as labor force status, industry and occupation of employment, weekly
earnings (not annual earnings/income), and standard demographic information. More information about the contents of the MORG
data is available via the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Note that the MORG data are not the same as the data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the CPS that is conducted
in March of each year. Patrons interested in the ASEC data should go to
the NBER's collection of CPS data files, to
IPUMS-CPS, or to
the DataFerrett instead.
Datastream Advance
Datastream Advance is a very good source for data on exchange rates, interest rates, prices, stocks, and various
macroeconomic data. It is available on workstations in both the EDC and the Goizueta Business Library.
UNIDO Industry Demand-Supply Balance (IDSB) Database
The IDSB Database is produced by the United
Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and has time-series industry-level data for multiple
developed and developing countries. The database classifies industries using the International Standard
Industrial Classification (ISIC) codes. The industry-level variables include consumption, output, exports, and
imports. Users can create subsets of data and export them directly into spreadsheets.
UNIDO Industrial Statistics (INDSTAT) Databases
The INDSTAT databases are produced by the United
Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and have time-series industry-level data for multiple
developed and developing countries. The databases classify industries using the International Standard
Industrial Classification (ISIC) codes. The industry-level variables include numbers of establishments and
employees, output, value-added, and capital formation. There are two INDSTAT databases - one at the
three-digit ISIC level and one at the four-digit ISIC level.
World Bank Global Development Finance (GDF)
The GDF contains annual statistics on stocks and flows of public and private debt owed over 100
countries, with data coverage extending back to 1970 (varying by series) and projections for certain indicators
extending up to 2010. A complete list of the
indicators available in the GDF is available here.
World Trade Analyzer
The WTA contains data on bilateral trade flows from 1980 to 1999 in specific products down to the 4-digit SITC
code. The WTA is available on the machines in the Electronic Data Center as well as in the Goizueta business
library. A more recent version of the WTA covers the years 1987-2004 and includes data on post-communist
countries in Eastern Europe. Both versions are available in the Data Center.
A complete list of the Data Center's non-web databases is available here. The databases are accessible via the Data Center's public workstations.
Home | Analyze Data Online | Help Resources | Contacts & Hours | Emory General Libraries