Posted-By: auto-faq 3.3 (Perl 5.005)
Archive-name: econ-resources-faq/part5 Aux-Header: Posting-Frequency: monthly Sci-econ-research-archive-name: econ-resources-faq/ Last-modified 1999/09/30 Version: vol. 4 no. 2 Url: http://rfe.org See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge Resources for Economists on the Internet, Vol. 4, No. 2, September, 1999 Editor: Bill Goffe <Bill.Goffe@usm.edu> Editorial Assistant: Elise Braden <elise@econlit.org> Part 5 of 20 This guide, sponsored by the American Economic Association, lists more than 1,000 resources on the Internet of interest to academic and practicing economists, and those interested in economics. Almost all resources are also described. Resources for Economists on the Internet (RFE) is a copyrighted work of the American Economic Association (the "AEA"). Permission to make digital, electronic or hard copies of part or all of RFE for personal or classroom use, Usenet distribution, or mailing lists is granted, provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or direct commercial advantage and that whole copies show the following notice: "Resources for Economists on the Internet (RFE), Copyright 1999 American Economic Association" Otherwise the AEA owns the exclusive right to print, publish, distribute, reproduce, sell, prepare derivative works, transmit, download, or otherwise transfer copies of RFE. Copyrights of components of this work owned by others than the AEA must be honored and attributed to the rightful owner. Abstracting and short quotes are permitted. To copy otherwise or to republish otherwise, including on web pages, in whole or in part requires prior specific permission. Permissions may be requested from the American Economic Association, 2014 Broadway, Suite 305, Nashville, TN 37203, or via E-mail: aeainfo@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu. RFE is provided without any express or implied warranty. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For distribution via Usenet, this FAQ is split into 20 parts as large files don't travel well on Usenet. For other locations of this guide, see the section titled "1.5 Where to Obtain This Guide" in part 2. 2.3.0 World and Non-U.S. Data 2.3.1 Alta Plana International Economics Gateway [various international and non-U.S. entities] This site, run by Seth Grimes, has a number of links to sites with non-U.S. data. Specifically, he lists "Resource Pages and Data Archives" (for general economic resources), "International Organization Pages," "National Government Pages," and "Corporate Servers" (of many varied types that economists are likely to find useful). # http://altaplana.com/gate.html 2.3.2 Central Bank Resource Center [both central banks and ministries of finance] This site, run by Mark Bernkopf, deals with all aspects of central banking. This includes an extensive list of central banks and ministries of finance. There are numerous other items of interest, including currency boards, conferences in the area, multilateral financial institutions, monetary research institutes and consultancies, central bank research departments, and other resources. # http://patriot.net/~bernkopf/ 2.3.3 Econ. Departments, Institutes and Research Centers in the World (EDIRC): Statistical Offices [very many listings] This section of this very useful resource contains a section on "Statistical Offices." In all, EDIRC lists more than 4,000 sites. # http://ideas.uqam.ca/EDIRC/statoff.html 2.3.4 Econ. Departments, Institutes and Research Centers in the World (EDIRC): Central Banks and Monetary Authorities [very many listings] This section of this very useful resource contains a section on "Central Banks and Monetary Authorities." In all, EDIRC lists more than 4,000 sites. # http://ideas.uqam.ca/EDIRC/central.html 2.3.5 Statistical Data Locators [directory of international stat sites] This site, part of the library at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, offers a very extensive list of international data sites on the Internet (as one might expect, its first listing is Singapore). It is organized by region: "Asia, Oceania, North America, Europe, Africa, International, Latin America, and Others." # http://www.ntu.edu.sg/library/statdata.htm 2.3.6 CIA World Factbook 1998 [well-known summary data and analysis] This well-known reference has wide-ranging summary data on 263 countries and other similar entities from around the world. While the economic information is of the snapshot variety, it includes a written overview and some 20 current observations of key economic values. There is also extensive information on geographical, demographic, government, communications, transportation, military, and "transnational issues" for each country. # http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ + 2.3.7 EIU CountryData + + [271 mostly quarterly series from 116 countries] + + This dataset comes from the "Economist Intelligence Unit," which of + course is affiliated with "The Economist" magazine. EIU CountryData + results from a partnership between the EIU and Bureau van Dijk: the + data is collected by the EIU and the software is developed by Bureau + van Dijk. The data comes from a variety of sources, and it covers + 116 countries from 1980 with some 271 variables (for most countries, + the data is quarterly). Forecasts are available to five years in the + future. The data is updated monthly, although data on each country + is updated four times each year. The discounted annual cost for a + standard, single academic user is $7,800 (with higher group rates). + Data can also be purchased by geographic region. For non-academic + pricing and regional rates, call 1-888-797-7120. + + A key feature of this dataset is the very feature-laden interface. It + could well eliminate the need for pre-processing with a spreadsheet + or other programs. They also provide extensive support, and one can + communicate with those responsible for collating the data. Trial + subscriptions can also be arranged. + + # http://www.bvdny.com/products/eiu/overview.htm + 2.3.8 GlobalMetrix + + [very extensive international and trade data] + + This firm sells a great variety of data from a number of + international organizations and packages them in easy-to-use formats. + Specifically, data is available from 72 countries (which can be + purchased by country, region, or the world), and some 64 industries, + including 80 internationally traded commodity groups with an initial + date of 1980, and forecasts to 2017. Quoting from their material + (with some editing for brevity) they offer: + + # Global Consumer Spending - 16 spending categories + # Gross Fixed Investments - 64 industry and service sector + expenditures + # Global Government Expenditures - 10 categories + # Global Industry and Services Output - 64 industry and service + sector gross-outputs + # Global Employment and Occupation - number of employees in 64 + industry and service sectors + # Global Wage and Salary - annual wage and salary per employee in 64 + industry categories + # Global Pollution - estimates of toxic waste release by 64 + industries for 300 noxious substances + # Global Commodity Trade - covers 80 commodities, produced by 50 + industries, showing bilateral trade between 65 countries and + regions worldwide (4,225 trade routes) + # AirFlow - covers air freight volume between 65 countries and + regions worldwide (4,225 trade routes) + # SeaFlow - covers ocean freight volume between 65 countries and + regions worldwide (4,225 trade routes) + # PaxFlow - includes passenger traffic for 50 major route corridors + worldwide. + + The data can be purchased in many different increments -- it can be + purchased by county, region, or country. As one would guess, the cost + per observation decreases as they size of the purchase increases. + + In addition, "Intelligence Reports" "of a particular country, + economic sector or trading relationship" are also available for + purchase. They are updated every six months. Finally, "Customized + Models" can be created at a customer's request. + + # http://GlobalMetrix.com 2.3.9 Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) [households survey from 25 countries and macro data from OECD countries] This project brings together household surveys from 25 countries (surveys from four other countries are under negotiation) into a common database to make studies of international economic comparisons easier. For instance, it includes Current Population Surveys from the U.S., French Surveys of Income, and a Hungarian Income Study. To maintain confidentiality and restrictions on use, the data remains on the host computer in Luxembourg and researchers run jobs remotely on that system through electronic mail. Users must first register to use the database. They also have a database (Institutional Database, IDB) of annual macro indicators on all OECD countries. This database also contains rules on taxes and transfers in each country to make international comparisons possible. This dataset is available on floppy disks. This site also includes the Comparative Welfare State Database, which focuses on a wide range of indicators of welfare state development, its causes, and its outcomes on an annual basis for the period 1960-89. The purpose of the LES project "is to construct a databank containing Labour Force Surveys from the early nineties from countries with quite different labour market structures. These surveys provide detailed information on areas like job search, employment characteristics, comparable occupations, investment in education, migration, etc." The micro data from the labour force surveys has been standardized to facilitate comparative research. The datasets are well documented, and workshops and newsletters help the researcher to use this complex database. They also offer working papers. # http://lissy.ceps.lu/index.htm # Tim Smeeding, Overall Project Director: <tmsmeeding@maxwell.syr. edu> # Kati Foley, Administrative Assistant (U.S.): <lisaa@maxwell.syr. edu> # Caroline de Tombeur, Administrative Assistant (Europe): <Caroline@lissy.ceps.lu> # Koen Vleminckx, Technical Questions <koen@lissy.ceps.lu> # Tim Smeeding, Overall Project Director: <tmsmeeding@maxwell.syr. edu> # Inge O'Connor, Administrative Assistant (U.S.): <lisaa@maxwell.syr. edu> # Caroline de Tombeur, Administrative Assistant (Europe): <caroline@post.ceps.lu> 2.3.10 OANDA [current and historical exchange rates] This organization is owned by "Olsen & Associates" which is said to be a leader in financial and especially foreign exchange studies and forecasts. Here they make their foreign exchange data available. Both current and historical rates can be found for some 164 countries. Daily historical data is available from 1990, and a single table can have as many as 2,000 observations. Forecasts are also available, as are various specialized features. # http://www.oanda.com 2.3.11 PACIFIC Exchange Rate Service Retrieval Interface [current and historical exchange rates] This offering, run by Werner Antweiler of the Policy Analysis Division, Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, University of British Columbia (and named PACIFIC for Policy Analysis Computing & and Information Faculty in Computing) offers two types of exchange rate data: current and historical. In both cases daily data is available, and from many countries (65 countries are updated daily, and about 200 are updated at least weekly; not all countries have historical data). It also provides a list of all currencies of the world and each country's exchange-rate arrangements, as well as analysis and trend projections of the Canadian Dollar. The data comes from Xenon Laboratories. # http://pacific.commerce.ubc.ca/xr/ 2.3.12 Penn World Tables (Univ. of Toronto) [valid cross-country comparisons (data ends in 1992, however)] This organization, which for a fee also makes available the Canadian CANSIM database, demonstrates how the web can make it very easy to retrieve economic data across the Internet. With your browser, you can very easily select and retrieve individual or multiple series from this database (in formats for most any statistical program), or plot them interactively. It sets the standard for data retrieval on the Internet. This dataset covers 152 countries with 29 time series. They are carefully adjusted to make comparisons meaningful. # http://arcadia.chass.utoronto.ca/pwt/ 2.3.13 PRS Online Country Data [purchase current and historical data from 144 countries] This firm takes data from the World Bank, IMF, OECD, the CIA and others and resells it here on-line. They offer data from 144 countries, and for each country they have some 50 annual series from the last 10 years. Coverage includes domestic economic conditions, international transactions, geographical and political data, and various social indicators. They also offer risk ratings and macro forecasts. While being a subscriber is more efficient for bulk purchases, it is possible to purchase one series or a group of series. A single series is $5, and and all data for a country is $50. # http://www.countrydata.com/ 2.3.14 Resource Centre for Access to Data on Europe (rcade) [data from Eurostat can be purchased here] This organization currently sells access to datasets from three different organizations: Eurostat, ILO (International Labor Organization), and UNESCO. They are an official host of Eurostat, and the data includes all of the "New Cronos" database, which is a fairly comprehensive dataset; it has detailed agricultural, energy, economic, industrial, and demographic information (some of the data is available down to the NUTS 3 level). The ILO data contains information on labor conditions from around the world (such as injuries, unemployment, wages, hours, strikes, etc.). Perhaps the most interesting part of UNESCO data is the educational material. This organization has a variety of pricing models, including reduced rates for academics. Bills can be paid by credit card. # http://www-rcade.dur.ac.uk/ 2.3.15 Asian Development Bank This site describes all aspects of this bank's work. This not only included information about themselves, but also includes business opportunities, news releases, extensive information on their projects, and their work with law and development. There is also extensive material on their publications. For many countries in the region, they offer fairly lengthy time series data on national accounts, the financial system, trade, and other indicators. Data is also available in spreadsheet format. # http://www.adb.org/ 2.3.16 Eurostat This organization, which covers economic activity for the European Union, currently offers press releases, information about itself, information on products and EU-specific CD-ROMs and databases, on-line indicators, on-line catalogs, and statistical news. # http://europa.eu.int/eurostat.html 2.3.17 Inter-American Development Bank This sites describes many aspects of the bank's work. It also has extensive information on their projects, press releases, publications, some information on business opportunities, information on their private sector projects, and information on the Inter-American Investment Corporation, Multilateral Investment Fund, and Regional Fund for Agricultural Technology. They also have fairly extensive summary statistical data on their member countries. # http://www.iadb.org/ 2.3.18 International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO (ITC) This organization, jointly operated by the UN and WTO, deals with international trade (particularly with developing and transitional countries). Besides detailed information on their mission and programs, they offer considerable data on-line (and even more is available on their CD-ROM products). Their COMTRADE database contains detailed import and export statistics from 1962 for more than 100 countries. This data is available on a CD-ROM product. In addition, a subset of this data is available on-line. It identifies the largest and most dynamic import and export countries and highlights the most important import/export products (3 digits level) of the Standard International Trade Classification Revision 3. # http://www.intracen.org/ 2.3.19 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) You can read extensive information on the the OECD's activities, publications, and their data products here. The "Statistics" section offer a variety of socio-economic indicators. Of particular interest are "Economic Statistics," which offers some recent summary data for OECD countries. "Latest short-term indicators" and "Frequently requested statistics" provide much of the most useful data (the former is basically the last quarter's data, while the latter includes GDP, GDP per capita, unemployment, and the like). However, there are no publically available long length time series. There is also some analysis of current economic conditions. News releases and newsletters can be found in the "News and Events" area. # http://www.oecd.org 2.3.20 International Monetary Fund (IMF) The IMF has responded to recent complaints about their operations by becoming more transparent itself. At this site, you can read a great deal about the IMF (including its annual report and extensive material on its structure), their fact sheets on a number of topics, press releases, news briefs, speeches from the managing director, and details from their publications catalog. Among data, they offer currency exchange rates. Among publications, they offer the "IMF Survey" (which "provides topical coverage of the IMF's activities, policies, and research in the context of global economic and financial developments") and the full text of IMF Working Papers, Staff Country Reports, and Papers on Policy Analysis and Assessment. They also offer "Letters of Intent, Economic Programs, Memoranda of Economic and Financial Policies and Policy Framework Papers" for the various countries that they deal with. Finally, their "Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board" is available here. The Special Standard and its associated bulletin board provide access to international capital markets and their economic and financial data with equal and ready access for all users. For many countries, it lists where most any sort of macro data can be obtained (including on the Internet) from countries that participate in this program. For just the U.S., this is a very useful resource as it says who generates various series and how they are collected. # http://www.imf.org 2.3.21 U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) This part of the U.N. has the major responsibilities for trade and development. Here, they offer extensive information on the organization (including its "basic documents"), its many varied projects, its upcoming meetings and events, and press releases. There are links to its "Debt Management and Financial Analysis System," newsletters on the "Generalized System of Preferences" and "Trade Facilitation and Multimodal Transport," and summary information on their publications, including "Trade and Development Report," "World Investment Report," "Least Developed Countries Report," "Handbook of International Trade and Development Statistics," and "Review of Maritime Transport." # http://www.unctad.org/ 2.3.22 U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) This organization's mission is well described by its title. Perhaps most useful to economists is their extensive collection of agricultural, fisheries, forestry, economics, and nutrition data from around the world. This site provides information on WAICENT, the World Agricultural Information Center. It also offers FAOSTAT, an online and multilingual database which currently contains 1 million time-series records on international statistics. Besides data, there are a number of items of additional interest and links to other sites. # http://www.fao.org/ 2.3.23 U.N. Statistics Division/DESIPA This section of the U.N. collects various statistical information. Perhaps of greatest interest is data from the "Monthly Bulletin of Statistics," which is now available on-line for a fee (currently $295 for academic users, and $525 for the "for profit" sector). Data includes national accounts, labour force, prices, forestry, industry, mining, energy, manufacturing, construction, finance, international economic relations, transport, and population. There is also snapshot cross country data for many socio-economic indicators. # http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/index.html 2.3.24 World Trade Organization (WTO) This organization oversees international trade. Their web site has three main sections: general information about WTO, trade topics, and international trade resources. You can register for e-mail notification of "new developments, updates, publications, reports etc." They offer information on goods, services, intellectual property, environment, development, policy reviews, dispute settlements, government procurements, legal texts, and international trade. They also offer working papers and information on the economic research and analysis division (ERAD). Their "Document Dissemination Facility" (DDF) that offers "selected documents" (such as those that established the WTO). Finally, they have news releases (including an area of restricted access for the news media). # http://www.wto.org 2.3.25 India 1997-98 Budget This site has information on the 1998 budget of India, with many details. Also presents information on past budgets, Exim Policy, Credit Policy, analyses and opinions, and EcoSurvey 98. # http://budget.allindia.com/ + 2.3.26 Statistics Indonesia + + This site provides information about this Indonesian governmental + agency, as well as listing information on the country's statistics by + both subject and region; summaries of new statistics; macroeconomic + statistics; census summaries; abstracts, papers, and research; + publications, and a statistical glossary. The macroeconomic + statistics are reported monthly and can be downloaded with Adobe + Acrobat Reader. Information includes charts on inflation, consumer + price index, wholesale price index, exports and imports, and tourism. + Where statistics are organized by subjects, one can find explanations + and definitions of each subject, the methods used to gather + statistical information, publications, and statistical tables. + + The subjects featured are population, employment, social welfare, + wages, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, energy, construction, + tourism, foreign trade, transportation, communication, public + finance, consumer price index, wholesale price index, consumption and + expenditure, and national and regional accounts. If tables are not + available on the site, they can be requested through Data + Dissemination Services. + + # http://www.bps.go.id/ 2.3.27 Bank of Japan Besides information about the bank, they offer extensive information on their publications (including CD-ROMs), a list of dates for press releases as well as press releases and speeches, current exchange rates, reports (including the "Monthly Report of Recent Economic and Financial Developments," "Quarterly Economic Outlook," the "Annual Review of Monetary and Economic Developments," the "Monthly Economic Review," and the "Flow of Funds." Data (including long time series) includes the money stock, TANKAN Outline ("Short-Term Economic Survey of Enterprises in Japan"), various price indices and interest rates, foreign exchange rates, and data from financial institutions. # http://www.boj.or.jp/en/index.htm 2.3.28 Japanese Macro Data This site contains some 20,000 macro series from Nikkei Needs. It has been reformatted into the ASCII format used by the BCI Data Manager. When you first use this site, be sure to read the warnings concerning some oddities in the data and details on how to search for it (the data is located in this database with a WAIS search). # http://econom10.cc.sophia.ac.jp/needs/index.htm 2.3.29 Kokumin Keizai Research Institute "Kokumin Keizai Research Institute (KKRI) is an independent, nonprofit organization which conducts economic and policy research." Founded in 1945, it has more than 700 members. It generates forecasts for the Japanese economy (available here), and studies of industries, regions, Asia, and various public policy issues. A simplified version of their macro model can be obtained here (it requires either Eviews or the FAIRMODEL). # http://www.kkri.org/index_eng.htm + 2.3.30 National Statistical Office of Korea + + This site provides information on the National Statistical Office of + Korea, its statistical database (KOSIS), statistical reports, graphs, + publications, and surveys. Recent graphical data on land and + population; agriculture; mining and manufacturing; energy; + construction; wholesale, retail trade and services; transportation + and communication; labor and wages; prices and household economy; + money and banking; finance; national accounts; balance of payments + and economic cooperation; education, science and health; society + tourism and environment; and international statistics is provided on + the site. However, the statistical report section provides an + economic and financial data link to the Bank of Korea, where one can + find statistics dating back to 1970. + + # http://www.nso.go.kr/ 2.3.31 Canadian Industry Statistics This site provides details of various aspects of Canadian economic activity, emphasizing economics, employment, international trade, investment, public equity financing, growth indices, and other business-related information. The Canadian Industry Statistics site is comprised of 5 main components: The CIS Classic, Public Equity Financing, Growth Trends, Industry Overview, and other World Wide Links. The CIS Classic offers data on 230 Canadian manufacturing industries, focusing on variables such as wages and salaries, number of employees, operational costs, manufacturing shipments, imports, exports, and performance by establishment size. It is also possible to make comparisons across Canadian national averages in various statistics for each manufacturing industry. This information is available for downloading in WordPerfect format. The Industry Overview serves as a complementary function to CIS Classic by providing an analysis of Canadian industry trends in production, investment, research and development, employment, and trade. The section also provides comparative analyses of Canadian and U.S. industries. # http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_ecnmy/sio/homepage.html 2.3.32 Statistics Canada Currently, Statistics Canada, the Canadian national statistical agency, provides information from their daily report, the "Daily," on this site. It contains substantial summary macro information for the last few quarters. Previous issues of the "Daily" are available as well. It also contains information on Canadian statistics, census data, ordering their publications, lists of offices, their classification systems, subscription information on their listserv, and ordering information on their database, CANSIM (which has more than 650,000 time series on Canada). Another entry of this guide deals with "Statistics Canada CANSIM" , a fee-based collection of Canadian statistical data. # http://www.statcan.ca/ # Information: Michael Thoen <thoemic@statcan.ca> 2.3.33 Statistics Canada CANSIM This extremely extensive database (it has more than 650,000 time series) covers a very wide variety of social and economic data in Canada. Unfortunately, the data is not freely available, although customers can retrieve the data over the Internet through an agreement with the University of Toronto, or you can purchase individual data on-line. For academic users, the database costs $995, though discounts are possible in some situations. # http://www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/ # Information: Bill Graham, Statistics Canada <grahwil@statcan.ca> # Information: Chris Leowski, University of Toronto <chris@chass. utoronto.ca> # Information: Bill Graham, Statistics Canada <grahwil@statcan.ca> # Information: Chris Leowski, University of Toronto <chris@epas. utoronto.ca> 2.3.34 Austrian and Eastern European Economic Data (WIFO) This site is run by the Austrian Institute of Economic Research, and it offers two datasets. The first is a comprehensive dataset of the Austrian economy with more than 20,000 time series (there is an emphasis on long time series). The second dataset has some 5,000 time series of "Central Europe and the former Soviet Republics: Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Russia and Ukraine" starting with 1989. Data must be purchased, but it is available on-line. # http://www.wsr.ac.at + 2.3.35 Hungarian Central Statistical Office + + This statistical office focuses on "designing and conducting surveys, + recording, processing and storing data, data analyses, and + dissemination, protection of individual data." This site provides + links to the professional and scientific institutes of the Hungarian + Central Statistical Office; publications, periodicals, and major + surveys conducted by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office; press + releases; a glossary of statistical terms; current statistical + figures, including geography, road, population, employment, incomes, + consumption, dwellings, education, GDP, tourism, and financial; + recent Office reports; annual figures; and subscription information + for the data of HCSO STADAT. + + # http://www.ksh.hu/ 2.3.36 Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) This private organization offers information on their forecasting activities (they produce a number of publications) and general economic studies. They also offer a substantial amount of data, including international data and thousands of time series on the Finnish economy, but one must register to use it. # http://www.etla.fi + 2.3.37 Statistics Finland + + This site provides information on Finland's main center for + statistical information, recent statistical news, the Library of + Statistics, statistical databases and other electronic products, and + statistical data. The economic statistics section focuses on GDP, + employment and unemployment, and industrial production dating back to + 1991, and consumer price inflation since 1996; recent information on + population, families, education, employment, income, and electoral + participation; and main economic indicators from Europe and the + Pacific Region. Online databases include FINREGION--a regional + database that provides about 6000 short time series for every region + included; FINSERIES--a long time series database which covers the + production, consumption, trends, employment and other economic + information for the whole country; and the Bulletin of Statistics, + which is a diskette produced monthly containing both monthly and + quarterly updated economic statistics. Information on obtaining the + online products is provided. + + # http://www.stat.fi/ + 2.3.38 National Institute of Statistical and Economic Studies + + This site contains information on the National Institute of + Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), its products and services, + and key figures for the French economy. Tables provide numeric + information on twenty-five key figures, with all but seven dating + back to 1970. This data includes information on important economic + statistics such as income, labor, employment, consumer prices, + businesses, GDP, production, and financial markets. + + # http://www.insee.fr/ 2.3.39 Bundesbank The central bank of the Federal Republic of Germany offers extensive information about itself at this site. Other items of interest are their press releases and speeches. Of greater interest is their "Monthly Report," which includes extensive macroeconomic and financial data on Germany (though for recent years). They even offer daily updates for some of the data (mostly financial data). You can also find a list of their publications. # http://www.bundesbank.de/index_e.html 2.3.40 German Federal Statistical Office This site offers information about itself (including helplines), extensive press releases, short term economic indicators (GDP and the like for recent years), basic statistical figures, time series (only in German at the moment), and book and media store (including on-line data). # http://www.statistik-bund.de/e_home.htm 2.3.41 Statistik Regional (German Regional Stats) This site provides extracts from the "Statistik regional" dataset published by the federal and regional statistics offices of Germany. It covers population, health, education, employment, agriculture and forestry, industry, construction, tourism, transport, social services, financial statistics and taxes, national accounting, environmental data and election results. It has the complete coverage of themes of the full version but the level of disaggregation is not as deep. (As I do not read German, Thomas Krichel kindly wrote this for me.) # http://www.brandenburg.de/statreg/ + 2.3.42 Statec + + This site provides information on the Central Service for Statistics + and Economic Studies in Luxembourg (Statec), its role as the national + statistical institution of Luxembourg, and its products and services. + The statistical information presented on this site consists of + economic data, including tables dating back to the early 1980s for + employment, population, national accounts, and the budget; and dating + back to the early 1990s for producer price index, activity indices + for industry, and consumer price index. + + # http://statec.gouvernement.lu/ 2.3.43 Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) The CPB is a research center for the Netherlands which provides macro analyses and forecasts. It is also the budgetary and economic policy accounting center for the Netherlands. This site provides general information about the CPB; member information; press releases (mostly in Dutch); job openings and seminar listings; publications, with both Dutch and English reports of the outlook for the Dutch economy; information on the current research agenda, highlighting the most important projects of the year; and downloadable economic data in the form of spreadsheet files (mostly in Dutch). # http://www.cpb.nl/eng/ 2.3.44 Netherlands Central Bank At this site, this central banks offers information on itself, its banknotes, news releases, details of its supervisory duties, and monetary and financial statistics (relatively long time series are available). Information on the research department is available, and there is extensive information on their research papers. In addition, they offer some software, "Fysioen," which illustrates macro principles, which are derived from "MORKMON," their macro econometric model of the Dutch economy. # http://www.dnb.nl/english/index.htm 2.3.45 Statistics Netherlands This site contains current information on the Dutch economy. There is also summary demographic and social information on the Netherlands, information on the institution, and press releases. There appear to be no long term time series. This site also provides access to StatLine, which is the statistical database on the Netherlands. # http://www.cbs.nl/ + 2.3.46 Statistics Sweden + + This site provides information on Statistics Sweden, its products and + services, databases, press releases, statistical fields, recent news, + and statistics. The statistics section consists of economic + statistics; population; research and development; information + technology; construction; housing and settlement; and education. For + economic statistics, there are graphics for economic indicators such + as inflation rate, trade, employment, GDP, and others, dating on + average to the early 1990s. Also provides consumer price index data + dating back to 1949 and net price index data dating to 1959. + + # http://www.scb.se/ 2.3.47 Bank of England Founded in 1694, this central banks offers on-line information about itself and its various functions. Of specific interest are its extensive set of publications; many of them are on-line, including the "Monetary Policy Committee Minutes" (which supersedes the "Minutes of Monthly Chancellor/Governor Meetings"), the "Inflation Report," and reports on the gilt market (debt securities issued by HM Treasury) and on the Euro. Other reports, "Fact Sheets," and speeches are available, as is information on British banknotes and its "Centre for Central Banking Studies." # http://www.BankofEngland.co.uk 2.3.48 BizEd Net: CSO Data (U.K.) BizEd (Business Education) Net is designed for students and faculty members, and others interested in obtaining data. They currently offer the Penn World Tables, and perhaps more importantly, some data from the Office for National Statistics of the U.K., which is a substantial resource with economic datasets and labor market data. Also offered are MIDAS (Manchester Information Datasets Associated Services), summary demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Extel Data (Which has substantial financial data for 500 well-known companies), Company Report Browser, and Company Report Profiler. # http://bizednet.bris.ac.uk:8080/home.htm 2.3.49 ESRC Data Archive This UK archive, funded by the University of Essex, the Economic and Social Research Council, and the Joint Education Systems Committee, is the largest social sciences and humanities archive in the United Kingdom. It holds nearly 7,000 social science computer datasets, both historical and contemporary, that are in some way related to the U.K. (about the U.K., conducted by U.K. investigators, or of interest to U.K. users). For economists, datasets of particular interest include the CSO Macroeconomic Databank, the Family Expenditure Survey, and the Labour Force Survey. In addition, some of datasets contain multi-country surveys, so other countries are frequently included. Thus, this archive is of interest even to non-U.K. economists. Since the datasets are held under agreement with the depositors, one must contact the archive for information on how to obtain the data, some of which is available on-line (other formats include CD-ROMs and tapes, diskette, and DAT). # http://dasun2.essex.ac.uk/ 2.3.50 HM Treasury This site contains extensive information on the U.K. budget (both proposed and past ones). Other information includes the "National Assets Register," the "Debt Management Report" from recent years, fiscal policy papers, forecasts for the U.K. economy (both independent and from the "The Financial Statement and Budget Report (FSBR)" (also known as the "Red Book"), and information on the Euro. There are also press releases, statements by the Chancellor (and speeches by him and others), a list of print publications, and extensive information on the Treasury. Two mailing lists (one on press releases, the other on new Internet offerings by the H.M. Treasury) are described in the mailing list section titled "E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics" . # http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/ # ftp://ftp.hm-treasury.gov.uk # Information: <nfo@hm-treasury.gov.uk> # Suggestions: <editor@hm-treasury.gov.uk> 2.3.51 Manchester Information Datasets and Associated Services (MIDAS) This site offers a variety of services for U.K. users. In particular, it offers the National Dataset Service that has, or will soon have, many datasets of interest to economists. Datasets for registered users include the IMF's International Finance Statistics (with 24,000 time series from 196 countries), Balance of Payments Statistics (35,000 time series from 160 countries), Direction of Trade Statistics (61,000 time series from 184 countries), and Government Finance Statistics Yearbook (19,000 time series from 145 countries); the 1991 U.K. Census in various forms; the General Household Survey; the National Labour Force Survey; the Family Expenditure Survey; the British Household Panel Study; Office of National Statistics Macro-econ Databank (with 3000 U.K. time series); the OECD's Main Economic Indicators (with more than 2500 time series). Some of this data is from the ESRC Data Archive at the University of Essex. # http://midas.ac.uk/ + 2.3.52 Office of National Statistics + + This site provides information on the U.K. Office of National + Statistics, press releases, statistics, products and services, and + the Census. The statistical data includes economic and financial + trends, the purchasing power of the pound, employment, output of + industries, and national accounts. Also available on this site is + information about both the DataBank Subscription Service (which + provides monthly, quarterly and annual macroeconomic time series + data) and StatBase (which is the official on-line government database + of key statistics). + + # http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons_f.htm 2.3.53 Scottish Economic History Database, 1550 - 1780 This database has data on crop yields, demographic data, price series, wage series, and weather statistics for the time period 1550-1780. Detailed information on this dataset is on-line here, and is also in AJS Gibson and TC Smout, "Scottish food, wages and prices, 1550 - 1780," Cambridge University Press, 1994. They ask that any users report use of this database to further the financial support for it, and that users cite its use. # http://www.ex.ac.uk/~ajgibson/scotdata/scot_database_home.html 2.3.54 Israel Central Bureau of Statistics Besides a listing of the CBS' publications, dates of press releases, and information about itself, this site offers a substantial amount of on-line information. This includes data from the "Monthly Bulletin of Statistics" (available in several formats) which has 18 different categories from climate to public order (most of the categories are economic, such as national accounts, balance of payments, foreign trade, finance, prices, labor and wages, industry, etc.). In addition, there is a very useful search engine. # http://www.cbs.gov.il/engindex.htm 2.3.55 Praedicta: Israeli Economic Data This company specializes in a wide range of data on Israeli and world economy; in all, more than 50,000 series are available. Of interest to economists is their economic data, which includes demographic information, national accounts, balance of payments, foreign trade, finance and taxes, price indices and exchange rates, the labor market, and many other areas. It is a fee-based service. # http://www.praedicta.com/ 2.3.56 Central Bank of Turkey This site offers a wealth of economic information on Turkey with 43 different data groups. Data includes Outstanding External Debt, Daily Exchange Rates, Interest Rates on Deposits, Treasury Wholesale Prices, Treasury Istanbul Wage Earners Index, SIS Wholesale Prices Index, SIS Consumer price Index, Consolidated Budget, Balance of payments, Weekly Monetary Aggregates, GNP at Fixed Prices, and SIS Monthly Industrial Production. This site also offers information on the bank history and functions, as well as information on publications. # http://www.tcmb.gov.tr 2.3.57 Australian Bureau of Statistics This site provides information on the ABS; media releases; products and services, including its catalog of publications; and statistical data. Data includes key national indicators (national accounts, international accounts, consumption and investment production, prices, labor, income, and financial markets) and Census information. # http://www.statistics.gov.au 2.3.58 New Zealand Treasury Currently, this site offers material on recent budgets, and a substantial amount of information on general fiscal issues and New Zealand, such as their annual report, an overview of the country's financial and economic framework, some regulatory issues, etc. It also contains working papers and educational resources. # http://www.treasury.govt.nz/ 2.3.59 Reserve Bank of New Zealand This central bank offers information about itself, its most recent "Monetary Policy Statement," its forecasts, a summary of recent New Zealand economic policy, some of its "Information Pamphlets," and recent press releases and speeches. The "Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin" is offered online at no charge. Finally, they offer information on bank regulation. # http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/ 2.3.1.0 World Bank 2.3.1.1 World Bank [wealth of development info with summary country data] Besides a considerable amount of information on itself and on topical issues (including news releases, speeches, and summaries of new projects), the World Bank offers a wealth of information on development and growth topics. Their "Country Data" <http://www. worldbank.org/data/countrydata/countrydata.html> (part of the "Data" area) offers "Country Briefs" (several thousand word descriptions of economic policies and events) and "Country-at-a-Glance" (summary statistical information, with many cross-country comparisons). They also offer "World Development Sources (WDS)" <http://www-wds. worldbank.org/> which has some 6,000 searchable World Bank reports (the search engine is quite sophisticated). In "Development Topics," there are many items of interest for economists. They include "Economics & Trade:" # AIDS Economics # Central Capital Markets # Economic Growth Research # Economic Management and Policy Courses # Environmental Economics and Indicators # International Financial Architecture # IFC Loan Syndications # Prospects for Development "Finance & Private Sector Development" offers # Investment Information (IPAnet) and Privatization Opportunities (PrivatizationLink) # Microfinance - Sustainable Banking with the Poor # Private Sector Development # Resource Mobilization and Cofinancing The "Research" <http://www.worldbank.org/research/> area includes # Abstracts of Current Studies # Policy Research Working Papers # Topic-Specific Research Sites # Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) # Evaluations of Research # Frequently Asked Questions # Speeches of the Chief Economist Also available are various well-known publications (some portions or even all of some of them are on-line, and some back issues are available as well): # The World Development Report # Assessing Aid # Confronting Aids # Global Economic Prospects # World Development Indicators # World Bank Journals # Development Economics Newsletters # World Bank Policy and Research Bulletin # Various "Policy Research Reports" Other parts of the web site include "Partnerships," which lists those who do similar work (by regions and by subject areas), "Regional Focus," with resources by geographical region, and the "Development Forum" which uses electronic methods (mailing lists and such) to discuss development issues. It is described as "Where the development community meets to share knowledge and experiences." Finally, their "InfoShop" brings their on-line bookstore and public information center (PIC) together. # http://www.worldbank.org/ 2.3.1.2 Economic Growth Research This project, sponsored by the Macroeconomics and Growth Division of the Policy Research Department of the World Bank, and the International Center for Economic Growth (San Francisco) examines "the relationship between national policies and economic growth." It offers two basic resources: abstracts and especially data from articles, and abstracts and data on World Bank working papers on this subject. It also offers links to a newsletters registry and weekly seminar information. # http://www.worldbank.org/html/prdmg/grthweb/growth_t.htm 2.3.1.3 Finance & Development This quarterly magazine is published by the IMF. The publication ended a co-publisher arrangement with the World Bank on June 1998. Publication covers a wide range of important issues for both the international monetary system and the global economy. Currently, the online issues begin with the March, 1996 issue. # http://www.imf.org/fandd 2.3.1.4 Living Standards Measurement (LSMS) This section of the World Banks studies poverty in developing countries. The information here includes an overview of LSMS survey and datasets, specific information from several surveys, (including some data), reports that use the data, and information for managers of new surveys. # http://www.worldbank.org/html/prdph/lsms/lsmshome.html 2.4.0 Finance and Financial Markets 2.4.1 Bond Market Association [material on this important market] While much of this site is devoted to material of interest to this industry trade group, they do offer interesting annual data on this market, which of course has an important macro impact. For instance, in their "Research Desk" you can find find the percent of U.S. Treasury securities held outside the U.S. # http://www.psa.com/ 2.4.2 Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) [key security price data set] This very well-known data set tracks security prices from the New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange, and the NASDAQ Stock Markets from 1926. Here you can read about how to buy this data, as well as obtain support. # http://www.crsp.com/ 2.4.3 CRSP Data Access and Analysis [suggestions on using CRSP] This site doesn't offer CRSP data, but it does offer a number of guides and links to using it. The sponsor of this site, Don Cram, has also written a paper on accessing this dataset. # http://www.stanford.edu/~doncram/crsp.html 2.4.4 Financial Data Finder at Ohio State [lists numerous financial data sets] This site provides a number of pointers to financial datasets and other financial information both on and off the Internet. In addition, it lists information about on-line business libraries. # http://www.cob.ohio-state.edu/dept/fin/osudata.htm 2.4.5 Finance Area (Top Services International) [lists some 6,000 finance sites] This site, with something of a European emphasis, is said to list some 6,000 sites in finance. Major headings include companies, markets, the EU Market, stocks, valuables, vademecum (for travelers), offshore, equity, analysis, and miscellaneous. # http://www.tsi.it/finanza/index.html 2.4.6 FINWeb [lists finance sites] "The primary objective of FINWeb is to list Internet resources providing substantive information concerning economics and finance-related topics." To this end, resources are broken up into the following categories: electronic publishing (both journals and working papers), databases, other servers in finance and economics, miscellaneous topics, and highly recommended general resources. It is another good place to look for financial market information. # http://www.finweb.com/ 2.4.7 Global Financial Data [historical finance data] To quote from Brian Taylor, who is the President of this service: "We offer extensive historical financial data. On our site we provide free over 700 years of inflation data, and 200 years of data on exchange rates, interest rates and the stock market. We also provide long-term data on stock market returns and inflation rates for almost 40 countries. Our database includes data on over 50 countries and includes monthly data back to the 1690s." To quote from their offerings: The Long-term Monthly Database includes over 500 series of monthly data on stock markets back to 1693, exchange rates back to 1624 and inflation rates back to 1748. Over 50 countries are included in the database. The United States Interest Rate Database includes 70 series of weekly interest rate data. Data begin in 1835 on a monthly basis and in 1872 on a weekly basis. The Foreign Interest Rate Database includes over 400 series of monthly foreign interest rate data from 50 countries. Monthly data begin in 1700 and go back to the 1800s for most major economies. Discount rates, interbank rates, money market rates, government bond yields and treasury bond yields are included. The United States Daily Stock Market Indices Database includes 75 series of daily stock market data. All major United States stock market indices are complete back to their beginning. Daily data begin in 1885. The Foreign Daily Stock Market Indices Database includes over 200 series of daily stock market data from 45 world stock markets. Daily data begin in 1930. The United States Stock Market Sector Database includes over 350 series of weekly sector data back to 1918. Monthly data go back to 1871. The Foreign Stock Market Sector Database includes over 1300 series of monthly sector data for 25 countries. Data begin in the 1920s or earlier for the world's major stock markets. Some of these series, and summary information on the rest, is offered for free, and the rest can be purchased. As appropriate, there are frequent updates. # http://www.globalfindata.com/ 2.4.8 Investment FAQ [Usenet FAQ on finance] This document is the FAQ for the newsgroup misc.invest. As such, it covers a wide variety of material for individual investors, such as mutual funds, the tax code, financial planning, trading, technical analysis, and much more. # http://www.invest-faq.com/ # ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/investment-faq/ 2.4.9 OSU Virtual Finance Library [nice listing of finance sites for academics] This listing of finance resources on the Internet is quite wide-ranging. It breaks finance sites up into the following set of categories: # New Links # Popular Sites # Banks # Exchanges # World Market # Insurers # Investment Banks # Current Quotes # Market News # For Investors # For Researchers # For Students # For Executives # For Educators The "For Researchers" area is particularly extensive (though densely packed with information). # http://www.cob.ohio-state.edu/~fin/overview.htm 2.4.10 Public Domain Financial Data [various freely-available data sets] This site allows those with financial data they would like to share to place it at a common site. Thus, some caution might be advised since the data may not be "official." Details about this site can be found in the "README" file. # ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/archives/misc.invest 2.4.11 SEC EDGAR [electronic filings with the SEC] This database opened in January of 1994. It covers public filings by U.S. public companies made to the SEC from that data, this includes such things as 10K, 10Q, annual, quarterly reports, and many other items. Previously, this database was available only through Mead Data in either inconvenient locations or at very considerable expense. In an experiment, it was available at no cost over the Internet. The experiment was deemed a success, and now the SEC itself makes the data available. This database only covers filings made from 1994 on, for public consumption, and when made electronically by the filing company. Thus, it does not cover earlier years, current paper fillings, or non-public ones. There are a number of utilities that make using this large database easier. Some help you easily search for material, and another formats EDGAR fillings into WordPerfect format. # http://www.sec.gov/edgarhp.htm # ftp://ftp.sec.gov/edgar 2.4.12 Wall Street Directory [listing of finance sites] This directory claims to list nearly 10,000 separate web pages organized separate ways for different uses. # http://www.wsdinc.com/ 2.5.0 Journal Data and Program Archives 2.5.1 Economic Journal Datasets Online Datasets from articles from the "Economic Journal" can be found here. Data is from papers from 1995 to the present, where not restricted by copyright or technical issues. # http://www.res.org.uk/datasets/ 2.5.2 Journal of Applied Econometrics Authors of papers accepted after 1994 are required to put the data from their paper here unless there is a very good reason (such as excessive size or confidentiality considerations). There is some data from earlier papers. # http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/jae/ # ftp://qed.econ.queensu.ca/ # Information: James MacKinnon <jgm@qed.con.queensu.ca> 2.5.3 Journal of Business and Economic Statistics Programs and data from publications in this journal can found here. Current authors are expected to place their data and program here. # ftp://www.amstat.org/jbes/View/ 2.5.4 Journal of Money, Credit and Banking This journal, which may have well started economists' interest in data archiving, now offers data and programs from empirical articles since the start of 1996. The only exception is proprietary data and exceptional circumstances. # http://economics.sbs.ohio-state.edu/jmcb/volumes.html User Contributions:Part0 - Part1 - Part2 - Part3 - Part4 - Part5 - Part6 - Part7 - Part8 - Part9 - Part10 - Part11 - Part12 - Part13 - Part14 - Part15 - Part16 - Part17 - Part18 - Part19 [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: Bill.Goffe@usm.edu (Bill Goffe)
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
|
Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: