WIDER World Income Inequality Database (WIID2.0b) Cross-country and time-series observations (4665 Country/year observations) of the Gini coefficient as reported in surveys and as calculated by WIDER Good for: Showing changes in income inequality during the second half of the twentieth century. Time period: As early as 1867 but mainly from 1950’s to 2003. Documentation: User…
Gini index, gini coefficient, coefficient of concentration, gini’s ratio If you are trying to find the Gini index rather than calculate it yourself*, know that it can be a bit tricky to find. Some places you can look for Gini index are: WIDER World Income Inequality Database (WIID) Human Development Reports, United Nations Development Programme…
Country Indicators for Foreign Policy (CIFP) A database of over 100 political, economic, social, and cultural indicators for 196 countries drawn from open sources. “The data set provides at-a-glance global overviews, issue-based perspectives and country performance measures. Currently, the data set includes measures of domestic armed conflict, governance and political instability, militarization, religious and ethnic…
Global Development Finance A World Bank publication from that contains analysis and comparative statistics for nations and regions. The text is downloadable as PDFs, but use the links on the left for “regional outlooks” to more reports, the tables and charts of which can be downloaded in Excel format.
Political Terror Scale, 1980-2004 A scale of 1-5 measuring government terror or the level of citizens’ fear of government persecution. Good for: Measuring levels of political violence. Geographic coverage: 208 countries plus regions and groupings based on income and indebtedness. Time period: 1980-2004 Documentation: Discussion of the scale, Scale notes. Citation: Gibney, Mark. 2004. Political…
Major official sources for Foreign Direct Investment: See the IMF and OECD’s document on How Countries Measure FDI. UNCTAD: Foreign Direct Investment Database FDI On-line (also called World Investment Directory Online) “Detailed statistics on foreign direct investment (FDI) and operations of transnational corporations (TNCs) in selected countries” FDI Statistics (from the Division on Investment, Technology…
CQ’s State Fact Finder 2006 (book) Carleton Reference HA 214 .C68 2006 “More than 265 Tables for Quick Research” “One-Stop Ranking Profiles for Every State” Surprisingly, the blurbs on the front of this book capture some of the most important reasons one would use this reference book. Congressional Quarterly gathers information from respected state, national,…
Pippa Norris (Harvard) Exceptionally valuable global indicators datasets and their documentation being shared by this scholar at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Global Indicators Shared Dataset Variables: Over 700. Use the codebook. Geographic Coverage: 191 nations
The World Bank web site offers a helpful Statistical Manual, which provides definitions and methodological discussions of statistics collected by the World Bank and other institutions concerned with comparative international data. Their abstract: “The Statistical Manual brings together definitions of and explanations of the relationships between concepts used in economic statistics such as the balance…
Guide to Freely Available International Data Resources An annotated list of major free comparative national-level data sources, compiled by ESDS International.