Data is a crucial element of any economics course, but finding good quality and reliable data sites online can be difficult. National data services vary in the amount they offer for free online and while some are excellent, others offer little detail. The reliability of the data is something that is also difficult to judge. This is particularly important when it comes to trying to find comparative data to look at the way in which economic performance differs between countries. This is where organisations like the OECD, The EU and the UN can become very useful. They publish substantial comparative datasets – the real problem with all of these organisations is where to start!
One excellent place to start is the free listing of international economic data sites on the Economics Network site.
The same site also offers links to various portal sites where further data can be found. The useful thing about the Economics Network listing is that it also offers helpful step by step advice on how to access the datasets offered by the various organisations. For comparative data, the Biz/ed site also has a useful interface to access the Penn World data. This is high quality comparative data for a range of variables from 1950 onwards, though it does only go up to 2009.
Another useful site is Nationmaster. This is a portal data site, but also has some useful summary lists of data. Students might be intrgued by the lists showing the ‘Most murderous‘, ‘Fattest‘ and ‘Most indebted‘ countries for example! These are all available from a panel on the left showing ‘Top stats‘. For more serious use of the site, you want to use the links bar across the top of the site. If looking for comparative data, then follow the link to ‘Statistics‘, while if looking for data on a specific country, follow the ‘Countries A-Z‘ link. For example, if doing some work on currencies and purchasing power parity, the data on the Big Mac Index might be useful. There is also an excellent description of the Big Mac index along with an introductory video on the Economist site.
Tags: data
