Electronic Data Center : Data Sources for Economists

Selected Resources for ECON 410 (Topics in Macroeconomics)

Emory's Electronic Data Center

General Social Science Data Resources

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.

Statistical Abstract of the United States
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/
Electronic version of the popular resource. The Statistical Abstract contains a wealth of information on numerous socio-economic and demographic indicators for the U.S. Historical data tables taken from the Statistical Abstract are available here. There is also a CD-ROM version of the Statistical Abstract available in the Data Center, and the tables on the CD-ROM version often cover more years of data/statistics than do the print or on-line versions.

UNData
http://data.un.org/
UNData, which is available from the United Nations Statistical Division, is a portal for extracts of data compiled by various United Nations agencies and by other international organizations such as the World Tourism Organization and the International Telecommunications Union. UNData is a replacement for the old UN Common Database.

World Bank Statistical Capacity Building Project
http://go.worldbank.org/6NPVI562M0
The World Bank's Statistical Capacity Building Project "provides resources to help ... develop better statistical capacity that advances the national and international monitoring of development policies and goals." The project is in part an outgrowth of "outcomes-based" approaches to development that place greater emphasis on attemping to actually measure development and the impact of national and international policies intended to promote it. The resources here include various reports on the quality of gathering of data/statistics in individual countries, as well as a database of "statistical capacity indicator" scores.

U.S./DOMESTIC DATA SOURCES

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.

Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI)
http://www.chicagofed.org/economic_research_and_data/cfnai.cfm
The CFNAI is, to quote the website, a "weighted average of 85 existing monthly indicators of national economic activity ... The 85 economic indicators that are included in the CFNAI are drawn from four broad categories of data: production and income; employment, unemployment, and hours; personal consumption and housing; and sales, orders, and inventories." Data from a precursor to the CFNAI are available at this site.

Commodity Research Bureau (CRB) Indexes
http://www.crbtrader.com/crbindex/default.asp
The Commodity Research Bureau produces various indexes of commodity prices derived from the prices of different commodities (e.g. corn, soybeans, precious metals) in different markets in the United States. Monthly data for the indexes and their components are available, with coverage extending back to the 1950's depending on the index.

Department of Energy Energy Information Administration (EIA)
http://www.eia.doe.gov/
The EIA is a very extensive source for data on energy consumption in the United States, with both annual and monthly data available. The EIA also has a collection of "navigators" with additional data on various categories of energy, such as the Petroleum Navigator that includes national and state-level data on prices, production, and consumption. The EIA also has much international data available.

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.

Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversite (OFHEO) Housing Price Index
http://www.ofheo.gov/hpi.aspx
The OFHEO Housing Price Index is a quarterly index of prices for single-family houses. Data are available for the U.S. as a whole and for individual states and regions. Data are available from 1975 onwards, varying by geographic area.

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:

€-Coin
http://eurocoin.cepr.org/
€-Coin is an economic indicator for the Euro-zone that provides monthly estimates of GDP growth for Euro-zone countries within the European Union. In addition to the "real-time" data available at the site above, there is also an historical archive of €-Coin 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.

International Labour Organization
http://www.ilo.org
The ILO is the main international labor-rights advocacy group in the world and has brought together a variety of information about labor rights and working conditions internationally. You can access their databases directly at http://www.ilo.org/public/english/support/lib/dblist.htm.

Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH)
http://devdata.worldbank.org/sdmx/jedh/jedh_home.html
The JEDH is a very detailed site on external debt with time-series data going back to the early 1990's. The database is a joint project of the BIS, the IMF, the OECD, and the World Bank. Users can create subsets of the database and save them into Excel. This site is a replacement for the Joint BIS-IMF-OECD-WB Statistics on External Debt.

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/.

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.

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 Bank Trade Research
http://www.worldbank.org/trade
The World Bank's resources on international trade include multiple data sources that provide various measures of trade policy. The Trade and Production Database may be of particular interest due to its detailed industry-level production, trade, and tariff data. The Trade Restrictiveness Indicies, the WTO Dispute Settlment Database, and the Global Antidumpting Database are also worth noting. The Bank's Research Group also hosts a Trade Research site.

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:

Political Constraint Index (POLCON)
http://www-management.wharton.upenn.edu/henisz/
The POLCON dataset is managed by Professor Witold Henisz at the Wharton School of Management. The dataset measures political constraints on the executive in the form of multiple political actors (e.g. legislative chambers, courts). The dataset and codebook are downloadable upon provision of contact details.

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).

World Bank Goverance Data
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/data
The World Bank hosts a website devoted to data on governance and institutional quality and their relevance for economic development and performance. The World Business Environment Surveys and the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey may be of particular interest. In addition to the main data page, the Bank also has a web inventory of data pertaining to institutional quality.

CD-ROM/NON-WEB DATABASES

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.

Eurostat Statistics DVD
The Eurostat Statistics DVD is a very comprehensive source for economic and social data for EU members at both the national and sub-national/regional level. Some of its databases also include data for countries in Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to the DVD in the Data Center, there is also an on-line interface. More recent data from this database are also now available directly from the Eurostat website. The Eurostat interface does not cover as many years as does the DVD, but it will allow users to download data into spreadsheet formats. Please note that none of the interfaces is entirely user-friendly.

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 Africa Database (WBAD)
The WBAD is similar to the World Development Indicators (see above), but with a more intensive focus on African countries. The WBAD contains over 1100 indicators, with time-series coverage extending back to 1965 depending on the country and variable.

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.

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