Selected Resources for POLS 385 (Political Economy of African Development)
Spring 2008
Emory's Electronic Data Center
General Social Science Data Resources
Data Resources for African Countries: Economics, Conflict, Political Institutions, Public Opinion, and Social Indicators
CD-ROM/Non-Web 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.
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.
DATA RESOURCES FOR AFRICAN COUNTRIES
Economics:
African Development Bank
http://www.afdb.org/
The African Development Bank is a regional multilateral development agency. It produces numerous reports, including
statistical publications (available via the "Documents & Publications" heading).
Center for Global Development Net Aid Transfers Data Set
http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/5492
The Center for Global Development is a think tank that focuses on international
poverty and inequality and how the policies of developed countries might address those problems. In addition to the center's
various research publications and reports, it also hosts various datasets such as this one on net aid transfers to individual countries.
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.
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 and research projects 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.
International and Internal Conflict:
Correlates of War (COW) Project
http://www.correlatesofwar.org/
The Correlates of War Project is hosted at Penn State University and distributes
a variety of datasets relevant for the study conflict,
covering topics such as inter- and intra-state wars, colonial relationships, and bilateral trade.
Minorities at Risk (MAR) Project
http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar/
The MAR Project is affiliated with the Integrated Network
for Societal Conflict Research and the Center for International
Development and Conflict Research at the University of Maryland. The project tracks the status of nearly 300
"politically-active communal groups" and the MAR data are
used extensively by scholars of ethnic conflict.
Political Institutions:
Africa Research Program
http://africa.gov.harvard.edu/
The Africa Research Program at Harvard University houses several datasets relevant to the political economy of sub-Saharan
Africa, including data on domestic political institutions, internal violence, and population characteristics.
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).
Public Opinion and Survey Data:
Afrobarometers
http://www.afrobarometer.org/
The Afrobarometers are a series of surveys conducted across a dozen Sub-Saharan African countries with the
intent of gathering data on social and political attitudes towards subjects such as political participation,
national identity, civil society, and other such topics. The series is modelled in part after the Eurobarometer
series (see below). The Data Center has many Afrobarometer data files available
here.
Polling the Nations
http://poll.orspub.com
This website allows you to search a large database of results from surveys and opinion polls conducted throughout the world.
Social Indicators:
EDStats - The World Bank Education Statistics Database
http://www.worldbank.org/education/edstats
EDStats is a World Bank site with much data on education, both via tables and databases. The
Data Query System may be of particular
interest for time-series data.
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.
United Nations Human Development Reports
http://hdr.undp.org/
The HDR is an annual report from the United Nations that scores and rank countries on various indicators of "development"
broadly defined. Data tables from the HDR are available as .pdf files and, for the most recent report, in Excel. Data from
some earlier reports are available via Carleton University's
Country Indicators for Foreign Policy site.
United Nations Millennium Development Goals Indicators
http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Default.aspx
This site contains data for the various indicators used to measure progress towards achievement of the
Millennium Development Goals, which include objectives such as
eradicating extreme hunger and poverty, promoting gender equality, reducing infant mortality, and encouraging environmental
sustainability. In addition to this MDG site hosted by the United Nations,
data and reports on the Millennium Development
Goals are also available from the World Bank.
CD-ROM/NON-WEB DATA RESOURCES
Banks Cross-National Time-Series (CNTS) Data Archive
The Banks CNTS Data Archive contains time-series data from 1815-2005 on
a wide range of political, economic, and social
indicators. An older version of the archive is available
here.
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.
International Historical Statistics, 1750-2000 by B.R. Mitchell
Mitchell's International Historical Statistics series provides a detailed set of historical time-series
data covering a wide range of social and economic topics. There are three volumes in this set, each of which is
available in Woodruff Reference: Africa, Asia & Oceania (HA4675 .M552 2003), The Americas
(HA175 .M55 2003), and Europe (HA1107 .M5 2003).
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. The interface is the same
as that for the World Development Indicators.
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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