Libraries

Economic and Financial Data Guide

This guide is intended to facilitate the process of finding, accessing and using economic data, including statistics, aggregate and microdata. The guide includes licensed resources for UCSD faculty, students and staff as well as freely available sources such as through from federal, state and local government agencies as well as IGOs and NGOs. Resources that are only available through the Data & GIS Lab are noted as such.

Please note: you will need to setup your proxy server or VPN to access online data that is restricted to the UC San Diego community.

Multi-Subject Data Sources

The sources in this category span several disciplines, however, include economic data. These sources may also be listed under more specific topics in this guide.

  • American Factfinder (U.S. Census Bureau)
    Source for population, housing, economic, and geographic data. Provides fact sheets, statistics, and data sets.
  • Cross National Time-Series (CNTS) (1815-1973) (ICPSR)
    Longitudinal national data series for 167 nations. The CNTS archive was launched in the fall of 1968 by Arthur S. Banks under the aegis of the Center for Comparative Political Research (subsequently the Center for Social Analysis) and includes national and international statistics from 1815 to 2003 on topics such as economic attitudes and behavior, political activities, political system characteristics, and social attitudes and behavior.
    Please note: CNTS files from 1974-2003 are available in the Data & GIS Lab. Alternatively, the CDROM can be borrowed from the SSH Library.
  • Data Services at UC San Diego
    Please visit the main site for social science data services at UC San Diego for further links to, and discriptions of social science, statistical, aggregate and microdata sources.
  • Data on the Net (UC San Diego)
    Listing of over 300 Internet sites of numeric social science statistical data, data catalogs, and data archives.
  • Datastream
    Datastream is available during regular SSHL reference hours on 7 workstations in the Social Sciences & Humanities Library inside the GIS/Data Lab.
    Datastream is a historical financial numerical database that provides a range of charting and reporting tools that enable users to manipulate and display, or simply download data. The Microsoft Excel add-in enables users to access the Datastream database from within Excel. This database includes worldwide equity coverage direct from the stock markets, comprehensive market indices, economics data direct from national government sources as well as the OECD and IMF, fixed income securities and associated indices, commodities and derivatives data.
  • The DataWeb
    This resource is freely available on the web. According to the producers, "TheDataWeb brings together under one umbrella demographic, economic, environmental, health, (and more) datasets that are usually separated by geography and/or organization. TheDataWeb is the infrastructure for intelligent browsing and accessing data across the Internet. TheDataWeb provides access across the Internet to demographic, economic, environmental, health, and other databases housed in different systems in different agencies and organizations. TheDataWeb is a collection of systems and software that provide data query and extract capabilities, as well as data analysis and visualization tools, i.e., the DataFerrett". Browse a descriptive list of datasets.
  • Global Insight (UCSD only)
    Global Insight provides access to the 4 Basic Economics Databases (BASIC, BASIC/D, BASIC/FX, BASIC/W) covering U.S. economic, financial, and demographic statistics. Concepts available are U.S. trade, population, production, income, housing, employment, and finance. Data series are available at daily, weekly, and monthly frequencies with history from 1946. Although licensed users can search more than 100 Global Insight databases, DATA DOWNLOADS ARE LIMITED TO THESE FOUR GLOBAL INSIGHT BASIC DATABASES:
    • Basic Economics - contains approximately 6,000 monthly, quarterly, and annual time series that date back to 1946 when available.
    • Weekly - contains approximately 500 weekly time series that date as far back as 1959 where applicable. Whenever possible, monthly counterparts are available in the Economics database.
    • Daily
    • FX - the Daily and FX contain about 700 financial variables, commodity prices, interest rates and foreign exchange rates from various agencies.
  • Please see the Global Insight Guide for more information on finding and extracting data as well as for information on downloading the former client-based version - i.e., Webstract - for more efficient extraction for time-series datasets. You will need to contact Data Services for the UCSD Usercode and Password.
  • FRED - Federal Reserve Economic Data
    This website includes a range of U.S. and international economic data (price indexes, exchange rates, interest rates, GDP, trade balances, etc.). Useful features include easy browsing for U.S. regional data (states, MSAs, counties, BEA regions, Fed districts, Census divisions) and links to Liber8, the Fed's portal to current economic indicators, research and recent reports, and GeoFRED, a data-mapping tool which displays color-coded employment data on the state, MSA, and county levels.
  • Global Financial Database (UCSD only)
    Financial and economic data covering over 150 countries and over 6,500 historical and current data series. Bonds, Stocks, T-bills, Unemployment, GDP, exchange rates, and more. Long-term total return data on stocks, bonds and bills from every major market in the world dating back to 1900.
  • ICPSR (UCSD only)
    As a service to ICPSR member institutions, which includes UC San Diego, ICPSR acquires and processes data collections in a wide range of social science disciplines including economics. Browsing by series and subject will reveal a number of economic microdata sets, including the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). You will need to complete a one-time, short registration to download licensed datasets.
  • International Financial Statistics (UCSD only)
    Economic time series data for member countries of the International Monetary Fund, covering approximately 26,000 economic concepts, including exchange rates, prices, production, trade, balance of payments, banking and financial systems, employment, and many other indicators.
  • LexisNexis Statistical (UCSD only)
    Provides access to statistics produced by Federal agencies, states, and intergovernmental organizations with its advanced Search Tables functionality
  • LexisNexis Statistical Datasets (UCSD only)
    Part of LexisNexis Statistical, this product enables researchers to build statistical tables from multiple sources. It aggregates over 100 licensed and public domain datasets and makes 750 million data points accessible within a single interface.
  • National Longitudinal Surveys
    A set of surveys designed to gather information at multiple points in time on the labor market activities and other significant life events of several groups of men and women. For more than 4 decades, NLS data have served as an important tool for economists and other researchers.
  • NBER Online Economic Data
    These pages feature links to sets constructed by National Bureau of Economic Research authors and feature historical datasets as well links to recent sets related to economic indicators, industry, trade, demographics, and more.
  • SourceOECD (UCSD only)
    Under OECD Databases see OECD Statistical Compendium. Contains 200,000+ monthly, quarterly, and annual time series (from 1960) for OECD member countries, covering a range of social and economic phenomena.
  • UNdata
    Comprehensive global statistical database, covering all United Nations countries and areas.
  • World Development Indicators (UCSD only)
    Macroeconomic, social, and environmental data from the World Bank. The WDI database represents the World Bank's primary database for cross-country comparable development data.

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    Behavioral/Experimental Economics

    The focus here is on capturing data that supports behavioral economics, with an emphasis on consumer surveys, economic attitudes and bahavior as well as public opinion poll and election data
  • Continuing Series of Consumer Surveys from ICPSR (UCSD only)
    A number of consumer surveys that provide often valuable benchmarking insights into the consumer economy for companies, industry trade associations, and government agencies.
  • Surveys of Economic Attitudes and Behavior from ICPSR (UCSD only)
    Included here are a number of economic, market and world polls that focus on topics such as consumer attitudes, consumer expenditures, economic conditions, consumer expectations, investments, public opinion, stock market conditions, public confidence, and bank failures.
  • Historical and Contemporary Economic Processes and Indicators from ICPSR (UCSD only)
    Data represented here focuses on a number of economic processes and indicators such as cost of living, commodity production, balance of payments, and county business patterns.
  • Roper Center for Public Opinion Research (UCSD only)
    1935 - present
    Located at the University of Connecticut, the Roper Center is the principal archive for summary-level (aggregate) and micro-level (raw) public opinion survey data from the major polling organizations in the United States as well as some polls from foreign countries. All major U.S. polling organizations and polling sponsors are represented in the archive, including: Gallup, ICR, Ipsos, PSRI, RoperASW, Wirthlin Worldwide, Yankelovich Partners; ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Los Angeles Times, NBC News, New York Times, Time, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Kaiser Family Foundation, Pew Center for the People and the Press and academic research centers. The complete texts of questions, response categories, response percentages, survey organization, sponsor, field dates, sample and sample size are included.
    • iPOLL databank is the preeminent database of individual poll questions covering nearly half million questions (and answers) asked in United States public opinion surveys that have US national adult samples (or samples of subpopulations that constitute a large segment of the national adult population). Updated daily.
    • Download datasets and documentation in RoperExpress. Approximately 75% of the Center's public opinion studies conducted in the US from 1935 to present (and many recent studies from outside of the US) are available for download through RoperExpress.
  • Gallup Brain (UCSD only)
    1935 - present
    Includes more than 100,000 questions and millions of Americans' responses (including response frequencies) from every Gallup public opinion poll conducted in the United States since 1935. The Gallup Organization regularly polls Americans on current topics and the issues that most affect them. The database also includes full text of the Gallup Poll Tuesday Briefing. The Gallup Brain is updated weekly and includes all current and historical Gallup analysis of the data.
  • Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (UCSD only)
    1962 - present
    The ICPSR, part of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, has served social scientists since 1962 by providing a central repository and dissemination service for machine-readable social science data from over 130 countries. ICPSR holdings include over 1000 public opinion polls from around the world, including United States election exit polls. Polling organizations represented include: ABC News, CBS News, New York Times, Washington Post. ICPSR archives the Eurobarometer series and the ISSP.
  • California Polls
    The Field (California) Poll, founded in 1947, has operated continuously as a California statewide survey of opinions and attitudes on social and political issues. Through its regularly scheduled surveys, The Field Poll tracks voter preferences in all major statewide candidate and proposition election contests, assesses California public opinion about elected officials and major issues facing the state, obtains reaction to political and social developments, and covers topical news stories of general public interest.
    • Search Polls (1979-2006) Note: This search engine searches through the fulltext of each codebook.
  • Public Opinion Poll Question Database: Odum Institute Data Archives (Public)
    This public opinion database maintained by the University of North Carolina contains more than 230,000 questions from surveys conducted since 1958. It is the repository for all Louis Harris public opinion data and Roper Center nonproprietary poll data as well as state-level polling organizations from 22 states, with strong coverage of Southern states. Questions are searchable by keyword, date, study number, study title, or state.
  • California: Public Policy Institute of California (Public)
    The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) is a private nonprofit organization dedicated to informing and improving public policy in California through independent, objective, nonpartisan research.
  • American National Election Studies (ANES) (Public)
    ANES releases times series, panel and pilot study data on voting, public opinion, and political participation to facilitate an understanding of the theoretical and empirical foundations of national election outcomes.

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    Economic Development

  • Key Development Data & Statistics (World Bank)
    The data presented here are the most widely-used, official-source development data from the World Bank and other international agencies, including external debt, GDP, and GNI per capita.
  • SourceOECD (UCSD only)
    Under OECD Databases see International Development and International Direct Investment for information on external debt, financial flows to aid recipients, and direct investment.
  • World Development Indicators (UCSD only)
    Statistical data on the global economy for over 200 countries. Contains time series data from 1960-current for over 550 development indicators.

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    Environmental & Resource Economics

  • SourceOECD (UCSD only)
    Under OECD Databases see Globalisation and also browse under IEA Databases for environmental economic statistics.
  • World Development Indicators (WDI) (UCSD only)
    Statistical data on the global economy for over 200 countries. Contains time series data from 1960-current for over 550 development indicators. The WDI database represents the World Bank's primary database for cross-country comparable development data.

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    Finance

    Data that is represented here includes: stocks/equities; bonds; mutual funds; market indices; commodities; derivatives; foreign exchange; interest rates and company financials.
  • Compustat via WRDS (UCSD only)
    Provides annual and quarterly income statement, balance sheet, statement of cash flows, and supplemental data items on most publicly held companies. Also contains information on aggregates, industry segments, banks, market prices, dividends, and earnings. If you have not created a WRDS account, you can sign up here.
  • CRSP via WRDS (UCSD only)
    Most comprehensive collection of security price, return, and volume data for the NYSE, AMEX and Nasdaq stock markets. Additional files provide stock indices, treasury bond and risk-free rates, and mutual fund databases. If you have not created a WRDS account, you can sign up here.
  • Datastream (UCSD only)
    Datastream is available during regular SSHL reference hours on 6 workstations in the Social Sciences & Humanities Library inside the Data & GIS Lab. Datastream is a historical financial numerical database that provides a range of charting and reporting tools that enable users to manipulate and display, or simply download data. The Microsoft Excel add-in enables users to access the Datastream database from within Excel. This database includes worldwide equity coverage direct from the stock markets, comprehensive market indices, economics data direct from national government sources as well as the OECD and IMF, fixed income securities and associated indices, commodities and derivatives data.
  • Global Financial Database (UCSD only)
    Financial and economic data covering over 150 countries and over 6,500 historical and current data series. Bonds, Stocks, T-bills, Unemployment, GDP, exchange rates, and more. Long-term total return data on stocks, bonds and bills from every major market in the world dating back to 1900.
  • Global Insight (UCSD only)
    Global Insight provides access to the 4 Basic Economics Databases (BASIC, BASIC/D, BASIC/FX, BASIC/W) covering U.S. economic, financial, and demographic statistics. Concepts available are U.S. trade, population, production, income, housing, employment, and finance. Data series are available at daily, weekly, and monthly frequencies with history from 1946. Although licensed users can search more than 100 Global Insight databases, DATA DOWNLOADS ARE LIMITED TO THESE FOUR GLOBAL INSIGHT BASIC DATABASES:
    • Basic Economics - contains approximately 6,000 monthly, quarterly, and annual time series that date back to 1946 when available.
    • Weekly - contains approximately 500 weekly time series that date as far back as 1959 where applicable. Whenever possible, monthly counterparts are available in the Economics database.
    • Daily
    • FX - the Daily and FX contain about 700 financial variables, commodity prices, interest rates and foreign exchange rates from various agencies.
  • Please see the Global Insight Guide for more information on finding and extracting data as well as for information on downloading the former client-based version - i.e., Webstract - for more efficient extraction for time-series datasets. You will need to contact Data Services for the UCSD Usercode and Password.
  • Government Finance Statistics, 1970-1997 (International Monetary Fund) (UCSD only)
    These time series present annual (1970-1997) combined statistics on detailed revenues and expenditures for all levels of government. Topics covered include deficit/surplus or total financing, revenues or grants, expenditures, lending minus repayments, domestic financing, foreign financing, domestic debt or total debt, and foreign debt.
    Annual data are supplied for central government accounts and different levels of government in these categories: (1) central government budgetary accounts, (2) central government consolidated accounts, (3) central government extrabudgetary accounts, (4) central government Social Security Funds, (5) state or province governments, (6) local governments, and (7) general governments.
  • ISI Emerging Markets (UCSD only)
    Foreign business intelligence service covering macroeconomic analysis, companies, industries, finance, and news in Asia, Latin America, and Central/Eastern Europe. Includes full-text news articles, research reports, and online data.
  • International Financial Statistics (UCSD only)
    Economic time series data for member countries of the International Monetary Fund, covering approximately 26,000 economic concepts, including exchange rates, prices, production, trade, balance of payments, banking and financial systems, employment, and many other indicators.
  • Mergent Online (UCSD only)
    Provides detailed information about U.S. and International public companies. Content includes: links to SEC EDGAR filings, current and archived company profiles and annual reports, historical financial and stock price data, equity research reports, and industry reports.

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    International Economics

  • Bureau of Economic Analysis: International Accounts Data (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis)
  • China Data Online (UCSD only)
    Includes monthly and yearly reports on China's macroeconomic development, statistical databases about China's population and economy at the county and city level, and financial indicators industrial branches. Also includes statistical yearbooks.
  • Indiastat.com (UCSD only)
    Comprehensive portal to economic, social, political, and related statistics about India. Over half-a-million pages of statistical data are presented in a user-friendly Web format. Our subscription permits two (2) concurrent user connections.
  • International Financial Statistics (UCSD only)
    Economic time series data for member countries of the International Monetary Fund, covering approximately 26,000 economic concepts, including exchange rates, prices, production, trade, balance of payments, banking and financial systems, employment, and many other indicators.
  • Direction of Trade Statistics (DOT) (UCSD only)
    Direction of Trade Statistics from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provides access to Economic time series data for member countries of the International Monetary Fund, covering approximately 26,000 economic concepts, including exchange rates, prices, production, trade, balance of payments, banking and financial systems, employment, and many other indicators.
  • Penn World Tables (NEW: version 6.2)
    Time-series statistics on 188 countries and over 30 subjects, including population and components of GDP, primarily for the period 1950-2004, 2000 as base year.
  • UNdata
    Comprehensive global statistical database, covering all United Nations countries and areas.
  • World Development Indicators (UCSD only)
    Macroeconomic, social, and environmental data from the World Bank. The WDI database represents the World Bank's primary database for cross-country comparable development data.
  • World Economic Outlook (International Monetary Fund)
    The WEO database is created during the biannual World Economic Outlook (WEO) exercise. Selected series that are available in the WEO publication are now available on this website. Includes: GDP, investment, gross national savings, US dollar exchange rate, inflation, unemployment rate, general government balance, debt, current account balance. Annual data, from 1980, with projections to 2005.

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    Urban & Regional Economics

  • FRED - Federal Reserve Economic Data
    This website includes a range of U.S. and international economic data (price indexes, exchange rates, interest rates, GDP, trade balances, etc.). Useful features include easy browsing for U.S. regional data (states, MSAs, counties, BEA regions, Fed districts, Census divisions) and links to Liber8, the Fed's portal to current economic indicators, research and recent reports, and GeoFRED, a data-mapping tool which displays color-coded employment data on the state, MSA, and county levels.
  • RAND California
    Statistical database on California, with data at the state, county, city, and zip code levels. Includes demographic and housing data at the neighborhood level in San Diego. To locate RAND California data categories, periodicity, data sources, time periods available, and geographic regions covered, search the statistics database.
  • SANDAG Data Warehouse
    This San Diego county website links to data on population characteristics, such as demographics and employment, as well as transportation and crime statistics, land use, and population and employment estimates and forecasts.
  • SANDAG Annual Demographic Estimates
    Selected population and housing estimates from 1990-1998 for San Diego County, at the city, subregional, and census tract levels.
  • San Diego, California Historical Census Machine-Readable Data
    San Diego Census data for 1950, 1960, 1970, 1990, and 2000

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    Labor Economics

  • Bureau of Labor Statistics
    Current and historical labor statistics for the U.S.; links to sources of international statistics.
  • FRED Regional Data (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)
    Over 11,000 labor force and unemployment rate time series for every state, county, and metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States.
  • International Labour Organization, Bureau of Statistics
    Provides access to various cross-national statistical databases.
  • SourceOECD
    Under OECD Databases see Employment and Labour Markets and Taxing Wages. Provide employment, unemployment, and income taxation data for 35 OECD and non-OECD countries.
  • LABORSTA Internet
    An International Labour Office (ILO) database on labour statistics and metadata from over 200 countries and territories.
  • Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)
    The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), begun in 1968, is a longitudinal study of a representative sample (more than 7,000 families and 65,000 indivuduals)of U.S. individuals that emphasizes the dynamic aspects of economic and demographic behavior. The data content is broad, including sociological and psychological measures.
    Note: There are two ways to download data: the Data Center, and packaged data. In the Data Center you can create customized extracts and codebooks. Alternatively, if you want to download the entire PSID archive for a specific year or every year since 1968, you can do so as a packaged data file. Full questionnaires and additional documentation are available under the packaged data option.

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    Access to Statistical Software and Guides

  • Access to Statistical Software in the Data & GIS Lab in the Social Sciences and Humantities Library
  • Stata (UCLA tutorial)
  • SPSS (UCLA tutorial)

  • Annelise Sklar
    Interim Data Services Librarian
    Social Sciences & Humanities Library
    University of California, San Diego
    Phone (858) 822-1993
    Fax (858) 534-7548
    Email

    Adele L. Barsh
    Economics & Business Librarian
    Social Sciences & Humanities Library
    University of California, San Diego
    Phone (858) 534-1249
    Fax (858) 534-7548
    Email

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