Realism
is not the main strength of current theoretical models in mainstream
economics. By contrast, the user-friendly comparison of a good deal
of selected data can do a lot for inspiring new directions of research.
Wide
databases give the researcher a rich picture of how the economy
works, reveal repetitive patterns and stylized facts, enhance the
forecasting abilities as well as they give instances of policy effects.
Data for microeconomics and for macroeconomics should be mixed up
in order to link the two overlapping theoretical fields.
Structural
comparisons exhibit common behaviour of variables, opening the path
for theory.
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Selected contents
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GDP and macroeconomic
components (1946-2007)
More than 170 countries included in this dataset
in Excel format with GDP, Exports,
Imports, Investment,
Consumption,
Government Expenditure in constant prices.
Income distribution: All the Ginis in Excel
format
We redistribute in Excel format the 2019 database,
here
in Stata format, whose variable description is here.
It is a standard dataset of a single indicator (the Gini coefficient)
collapsing a whole income distribution, often used in cross-country
econometric analysis. To understand what is actually happening in
a country, it is much better to use the Gradin WIID
Companion database, especially if reinterpreted by EWI own tool
(the Lorenz morphospace). Readers can send us an email for accessing
this piece of research.
XLS
Historical
data about population, GDP and per-capita GDP in all countries of
the world since centuries ago
GDP
dynamics in all countries in the world (first half of 2017)
GDP
and its components (on-going updates with a few years of forecast
ahead)
Interest
rates (all countries and on-going)
Bilateral
and total trade of all countries in the world: a long time series
(52 years)
52 square matrices in easy MS Excel format.
Population
and location (longitute, latitude) of more than 47000 cities in
the world
Public
expenditure items worldwide (147 countries) 1980-2013
Effective
hours worked during a business cycle: 1998-2013 (28 countries)
Macroeconomic
data from the European Union (2013)
FDI
Inflows, outflows, inward stock and outwardstock in 200 countries
- a long time-series (1970-2003)
Emigrants'
remittances (205 countries): a long time series
Bilateral
remittances flows worldwide
World market share - daily - for web browsers
(2008-2012)
Look at real data about the diffusion of Explorer, Firefox, Safari
and Chrome - how new versions cannibalise earlier ones or try to
gain market share from competitors. Check in the original source
whether your country leads or follows world dynamics.
Excel
Piketty's database of income and wealth at the top
Available data in wide historical, recent and geographical coverage
Link
Historical trade data (1900-1960) - 21 major economies
Excel
South
Africa interactive database of downloadable datasets
Country
profiles
Advertising expenditure
(1999-2010) in Japan
Data
Central bank interest rates in 65 countries
(2000-2014)
Link
Official
interest rates in 6 major countries
(1980-2011) - monthly data
MS
Excel
Long-term interest rates in the EU countries
Interest spread across Europe.
Excel
CO2 emissions
and other GHG emissions
Climate change
is influenced by human CO2 emissions. The international distribution
of emissions for 41 countries (1990-2005) and 72 countries (2008-2010)
1990-2005
1990-2008
Global
data 2009 for 65+ countries - data released in August 2010
Global data 2010
and analysis - data released on September 2011
Country
and global data 2010 - released in November 2011with percentage
changes and structure across countries.
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GDP dynamics (1969-2009) - 192 countries
MS
Excel
A very long time series: GDP growth in Sweden
(1720-2000)
MS Excel
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Long-term macroeconomic data for 136 countries and 42 years
The
most user-friendly distribution of the main international database
on GDP components (consumption,
investment, public
expenditure and net exports)
for 136 countries and 42 years. Excellent for international comparisons,
long-term growth enquiries and business cycle analysis, since it
provides real values at constant prices comparable over time and
countries.
MS
Excel
MS
Access
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India time series of Reform Index and Quality of Life Index
In an innovative attempt to quantify institutional
change, a comprehensive measure for Economic reforms for India was
developed in the form of a Composite Index for the period 1975 to
2006. Similarly, a time series of Quality of Life was computed as
well.
MS
Excel data
and MS Word Methodology
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Bilateral
trade by product
A huge cubic matrix of international trade by
exporter, importer and product. More than 1 million records indicating
trade among any two countries in the world (total and by product).
From this datase you can extract the world market for more than
1000 product categories (standard SITC codes at 4-digits of aggregation),
exhaustive of merchandise trade. Cumulative values for 1998, 1999
and 2000. Data in DBF format, easily readably by free viewers and
MS Access.
Consumers'
microdata: incomes, preferences, purchase timing
Wage microdata: a random sample
with age, education, sex, marital status, sector, occupation and
other variables
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Preparing diachronic trade network data with Stata
Essay
by Dr. Simon Fink quoting EWI work on trade data
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Population
forecast for all countries in the world (total, urban, rural, density,...)
as well as a complete 2004
State of the World population (health, indicators,...)
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Ageing population: the share of
over 60 across the world (160 countries)
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Tourist arrival and their expenditure
Number of tourists for Tonga, Fiji, French Polinesia,
Samoa, Kiribati and other 194 countries (2000-2006), with some dollar
expenditure.
MS
Excel
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Biodiversity in EU - awareness and attitudes
A survey in 27 countries about the importance of natural species
survival and the wider biodiversity issues, as the relevance of
climate change and other stressors.
PDF
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Telephone calls country by country: a long time series
Minutes of conversation at the phone between couple of countries
(193 available nations) from 1983 to 1995.
MS
Excel
Reference
site
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Advertising expenditure by product
MS
Excel
The effectiveness of advertising - an analysis
PDF
World
trademarks registration by country and economic sector - a time-series
The Madrid system for the international registration
of marks provides data
and explanatory notes to this key element of Intellectual Property
Rights protection.
Total
bilateral merchandise balance among 99 countries (1998 and 2003)
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The Millennium Development Goals: the 2006 report on achievements
and failures
Essay
on the world in 2006
Essay
on Africa MDG in 2006
External
funds to overall African development
Comparative
data of different capital flows (FDI,
Net official development assistance, private remittances, long-term
debt) across time and macro-regions.
Data
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Assessing the sustainability of the world
Link
to data and tools
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Real world elasticity in 144
countries - Price elasticities and income elasticities of consumption
classes (food and non-food) - Food share on household budget
MS
Excel
Energy
consumption and production by country (1980-2002)
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Simplified aggregate balance sheets: a time series
Turn-over, value added, profits,
employment and other firm data
during the business cycles.
MS
Excel
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Exports, imports, trade balances for 181 countries - a time-series
Absolute figures, shares in world trade, rankings.
MS
Excel
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2004 Labour market levels and trends
in all countries of the world: employment
and unemployment in the general
population, the youth, the women
MS
Excel [1200 KB]
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Income distribution
in 2007 and 2025 in 600 cities of the world
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Economic
data: The presence and employment of SMEs
in 119 countries
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Comparative
time series for employment, unemployment, labour force and working-age
population in 28 countries (1981-2003)
Europe, Asia, America and Oceania covered.
MS
Excel
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Input-output
matrix of African emigration of high skilled workers (53 African
countries x 9 receiving countries)
Micro-data
archive of labour market histories
Based on Inps administrative archives, WHIP is
a huge and representative database of individual work histories.
The reference population is made up by all the people – Italian
and foreign – who have worked in Italy even only for only
a part of their working career. A large representative sample has
been extracted from this population: in the standard file the sampling
coefficient is about 1: 180, for a dynamic population of about 370,000
people (figures will be doubled in the full edition).
For each of these people the main episodes of their working careers
are observed. The complete list of observations includes: private
employee working contracts, atypical contracts, self-employment
activities as artisan, trader and some activities as freelancer,
retirement spells, as well as non-working spells in which the individual
received social benefits, like unemployment subsidies or mobility
benefits.
Site
Download
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Economic
data: Capital stock: a time-series
by country
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Readership of daily newspaper by occupation
MS
Excel
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The diffusion of contraceptive methods across the world (160 countries)
MS
Excel
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Economic
data: AIDS / HIV worldwide: a time-series
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An international comparison of 13 key indicators of innovation:
the European Innovation Scoreboard (2002)
MS
Excel
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2005 R&D spending in Europe, China, Japan and US
PDF
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2004 GGI judgement and data about how the world is coping with
its main challenges
PDF
[1000 KB]
Foreign direct
investment by country and sector
For each country,
the share of fdi from major sources is split by sector. A sectoral
specialization emerges, reflecting both real opportunities and the
perceived image of the country abroad.
Excel
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Inflation rates for 170 countries (1970-1996)
Yearly
dynamics of inflation is presented
in one sheet. Is price stability a common feature of the world economies?
Is hyperinflation a disease that hurts some groups of countries
more than others? Discover the answers to these and many other macroeconomics
questions just analysing the real data.
MS
Excel
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93 Food products price series for 198 countries (1985-2001 and
2001-2008)
The
price of sugar, milk, meat and many more foodstuffs. Ideal to compare
price structures over countries and time. By transforming these
local-currency data in dollars, you can test the "one
price law", according to which any good has the same price worldwide,
after taken into account nominal
exchange rates. Comparing with world
wages, you get the real purchasing power of people in food terms.
MS
Excel
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Gender
statistics from all over the world
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Income, consumer expenditure, and price
level in a regional comparison
MS
Excel
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Stock exchange index for 10 markets
(S&P500, Nikkei, Dax, Cac,...) - Daily quotes (1995-2000)
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Consumers' macroeconomic expectations by age, gender, education and
household expenditure
PDF
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Environmental respect data: the number of ISO14000 certified firms
in 98 countries - a time-series
MS
Excel
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Profit ratio to employed capital: an international comparison
of profitability over time (34 countries)
PDF
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Origins and destinations in world trade
- Trade flows over time
MS
Excel
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Daily
time spent on different activities by employment status, sex, and
age
MS
Excel [19
KB]
|
World trade statistics ()
Years:
2000 2004
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Education attainments in reading: a comparison of 35 countries
with trends
An
exceptional survey by IEA’s
Study of Reading Literacy
(PIRL), with microdata
available.
PDF
[8 MB]
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Tax revenue in OECD countries (1966-2000)
plus a comparison in tax systems
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Composition of public expenditure
(education, health, defence...) - 69 countries in Africa, Asia,
America, Europe (1975-1985)
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Quality of education: 16 indicators
Academic attainments in math, literacy, ICT,...;
participation, completion and drop out rates; resources...
Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy,Luxembourg,
the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, the United
Kingdom,Cyprus, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia,
Lithuania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia
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Life expectancy and healthy
life expectancy (HALE) (55 countries)
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Exchange rates for 200 currencies,
spanning across more than 20 years
In
one sheet you can track and compare the yearly dynamics of 200 world
currencies on the long term. Currency crises, fixed exchange rates
and wide fluctuations in a fully international perspective.
MS
Excel
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M1
data - a long-term money time-series
for 19 countries (USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Greece,...)
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Gross domestic expenditure on R&D by source of funds in 71
countries (e.g. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Egypt, Germany, Madagascar,
Malaysia, Slovakia, Turkey,...)
MS
Excel
|
Human development index (162 countries)
Rich
reports of reflections and data.
2001
2004
|
Oil world prices (1861-1999)
A
very long time-series of a crucial price for the world economy.
Gain new insights in inflation
tides and business cycles.
MS
Excel [7
KB]
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Energy statistics in OPEC countries
(e.g. Algeria, Indonesia, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela,
etc.) (2000)
PDF
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World primary commodity prices (54 time series) - Agricolture Raw
Materials, Metals (e.g. Zinc, Iron, Aluminium, Copper), Fertilizers,
Petroleum, Natural Gas, etc. (1980-2001)
MS
Excel
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Longitudinal micro-datasets of families on a subannual basis: cash
and noncash income, taxes, assets, liabilities, education, age,
and participation in government transfer programs. SIPP
free data allow the government to evaluate the effectiveness
of federal, state, and local programs
Download
page
|
Environmental taxes in 15 countries (1980-1999)
MS
Excel
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Health and disease
statistics worldwide
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Cocoa beans world prices (1971 - 2001)
MS
Excel [5
KB]
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Coffee world prices (1982 - 2000)
Look at the
difference in prices for consumers in importing countries and for
growers in exporters country. Seasonality analysis feasible, since
they are monthly data.
MS
Excel [80
KB]
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Consumption expenditure by income classes
A
typical monthly expenditure structure for different consumption
needs, differentiated by income classes of the households. The confirmation
of Engel's law of decreasing importance of food (the higher the
income) is accompanied by a host of other interesting features.
MS
Excel
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Savings by income classes
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Savings behaviors in the UK population (2000 and 2001)
A commented
overview of the micro-data results of a survey on savings
rules. The survey has identified four savers profiles: Saving
Shortfallers - those who struggle simply to make ends meet and who
say they cannot afford to put anything by for the future (18% of
the population); Saving Shirkers - those who believe that life is
for living, who live for the day, and, as a result, save very little
(13%); Sometimes Savers - those who realise that they need to save
more but make inadequate and haphazard attempts to save on an occasional
basis (29%); Savvy Savers - those who believe in the importance
of saving and save as much as they can. They tend to have a long-term
savings strategy (38% of the population).
Over half of
the respondents wish they had started saving earlier.
Dynamics available
thanks to a second survey in 2001.
PDF
[860 KB]
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Data for all the variables in IS-LM
model
Comprehensive
of 54 variables in long-term annual and quarterly time-series, this
US dataset is excellent for students to test the model as well as
for researchers to develop original reflections.
MS
Excel [104
KB]
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EU data for all the variables in IS-LM
model (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Switzerland and other
13 European countries)
MS
Excel [550
KB]
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Households socio-economic survey in Uganda
PDF
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Industry-level output, employment,
costs, investment,
capital stocks over 38 years
An
excellent dataset for studying the evolution of hundreds of industries.
Useful both for microeconomics and industrial economics purposes.
MS
Excel [4
MB]
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The share of SMEs in total employment and GDP
Comparable
data across many countries and years.
MS
Excel
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Purchasing Power Parities (30 countries) 1980-2003
Data and use.
MS
Excel
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Wages in New York
A
city wage distribution.
MS
Excel [79
KB]
|
Wages for 22 500 jobs across all industries
The
wage distribution with means and
medians for a huge number of jobs. How much does a lawyer earn?
How many times is he paid more than a food preparation worker? Discover
wage inequality thanks to an authoritative US dataset.
MS
Excel [2.4
MB]
|
Comparable wages for 162 jobs in 132 countries
The
MS Excel file with a user-friendly interface of the excellent dataset
by Freeman - Oostendorp. Long-term
time-series from 1983 to 1999. This data set allows for comparison
of wages across countries for the
same job, over time, underlining the differences between skilled
and unskilled works.
MS
Excel [2.9
MB]
|
Long-term interest rates in OECD countries (1982-1998)
A
small dataset on interest rates
in developed countries, as USA, EU, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand,
Norway.
MS
Excel [5
KB]
Government
bonds and other rates in 14 countries (2007-2011)
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Lending and deposit interest rates in 13 EU countries (1980-2001)
92
national interest rates have
been identified and allocated to ten broad categories - six for
lending rates and four for deposit rates.
MS
Excel [180
KB]
|
Tax
revenue composition (income personal and corporate tax, indirect
tax,...)
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National income and gross national
product, by components - Canada (1926-1976)
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Total expenditure on health
in OECD countries (1960-2000)
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Productivity
in 99 countries (1950-2000)
Link to Groningen Growth and Development Centre and The Conference
Board, Total Economy Database, February 2004, at http://www.ggdc.net,
where you'll find a lot of useful industry and macro data.
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Personal and government savings
in USA, Japan, Germany: a short-run comparison
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Attitudes towards democracy, economic and social issues: microdata
from African countries at the Afrobarometer
http://www.afrobarometer.org/
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Links
to international Recent
GDP figures all over the world
GDP,
employment, unemployment,
wages, consumer
prices, tax revenue, balance
of payments, and so on. Daily or weekly updated.
http://dsbb.imf.org/Applications/web/sddsnsdppage/
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Links
to international data: World
countries 2003 indicators for Human Development Index
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Links
to international data: Service
sector statistics worldwide
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Links
to international political data: World
searchable database of Parliaments composition (by parties, gender,
profession)
Select the country, the Parliament branch and "Last Elections"
(at the bottom of the page, in small fonts).
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Links
to international data: World
data (1926-1944)
Links to datasets
for sociologists
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Further
current economic and social data for specific countries can be downloaded
from the respective statistical
offices and central
banks, if the case made comparable by using the exchange
rates.
Other data are available at the Economics Web Institute
in separate pages - please use the Search tool
to find where or navigate through the left top page menus.
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