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Online Resource (Free)

Perspectives on the upcoming G20 meeting in Toronto

As you are no doubt aware, Toronto is playing host to the upcoming G20 summit June 26th and 27th.  It’s a good time, therefore, to take a look at some information sites and other resources related to the group.  Here are just a few – there are many many more out there.

  • The Government of Canada has a website devoted to the G20 and its meeting in Toronto.  On this site you can find government news, videos, Ministers’ statements, and a calendar of events.
  • The University of Toronto, through its Munk School of Global Affairs, has a G20 Information Centre with extensive links to news features; Ministers’ statements and communiques; G20 Official Documents, factsheets and newsdesk publications; and links to both U of T and external research reports.
  • OECD and the G20 is a topic page on the OECD website which provides information and links to relevant OECD reports, video clips, working papers and OECD leaders’ statements.
  • The World Bank has a blog devoted to the G20.  The posts are substantive and include World Bank or other high quality data sources where relevant.  Recent post topics include:  auto sales, poverty, protectionism, and good governance.
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Online Resource (Free)

Update: Google Public Data Explorer

We noted Google’s public data search feature in a November 2009 post and today we have an update for you.  Google Labs has just launched “an experimental visualization tool” called Google Public Data Explorer – designed to “help people comprehend data and statistics through rich visualizations.  With the Data Explorer, you can mash up data using line graphs, bar graphs, maps and bubble charts.”

Google data providers are the World Bank, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US Census Bureau, the OECD, the California Dept of Education, Eurostat, the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, so the Explorer has the potential to deliver high quality statistics on a vast array of socio-economic topics and for most geographic regions of the world.  Click here for more information about this resource from the Google Labs blog.

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Data Visualizer at the World Bank

The World Bank has just launched a new website that features a “publicly accessible tool for data visualization,”  called the Data Visualizer.

“The time series used in Data Visualizer is a subset of 2009 World Development Indicators database. It contains 49 indicators for 209 countries and 18 aggregates from 1960-2007. Data includes social, economic, financial, information & technology, and environmental indicators.”

Basically, countries or economic regions are represented as brightly coloured bubbles on a chart and you can choose from a list of variables for both the x and the y axis.  The bubbles move around as you drag the time slider across the bottom of the chart – representing change over time.   If you play around with the Visualizer you can probably figure out the basics of using it and interpreting the data, but apparently there are more advanced features that you might miss.  Fortunately the World Bank has also put together a freely downloadable  instructional video for users that will allow you to maximize this great free tool.

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Online Resource (Free)

G8 Summit Resource

Well, this find seemed topical.  There is a G8 research group at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto.  The group maintains a very useful website: http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/ which provides access to a large chunk of the group’s analysis and reports.  Monographs published by commercial publishers are not available online.

The site also links to available “Delegations; declaration and communiqués; other official releases; documents released by national delegations at summits; available transcripts of summit news conferences” for G8 & G7 summits dating back to the 1975 Summit in Rambouillet.

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Subscription Database

World Bank e-Library Trial

UBC has a trial to the World Bank e-Library and a few other of their databases until the end of August.

You can access the trial page here

World Bank e-Library: An electronic portal to the World Bank’s full-text collection of books, journals, working papers and other documents on social and economic development. It is the most comprehensive collection in the area and brings together a fully indexed and cross-searchable database of thousands of World Bank publications.

Africa Development Indicators Online: Provides the most comprehensive collection of data on the African economy. It contains data for over 1,400 indicators and time series from 1965 for 53 coutnries. Data include social, economic, financial, natural resources, infrastructure, governance, partnership, and enviornmental indicators.

Global Development Finance: The World’s Bank annual assessment of global financial conditions facing emerging markets. Offers external debt and financial flow data for 129 countries that report public and publicly guaranteed debt to the World Bank’s Debtor Reporting System. Time series includes over 200 indicators from 1970-2017.

Global Economic Monitor (GEM): Features up-to-date analysis of global economic conditions, including a daily brief and event-driven focus reports.

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Print Resource Subscription Database

New Database Trial

We’ve been lucky enough to get a 30 day trial to the IMF e-library which “contains publications from recent years as well as statistical resources: Balance of Payments, Direction of Trade, Government Finance Statistics, and International Financial Statistics.”  The trial expires July 22nd.  Please check it out and fill out the feedback form to let us know what you think.

Meanwhile, the IMF’s International Statistics are available via cd-rom at call no.: HG1 .I55 CD-ROM.  Note, this cd is mounted on the Data Services website and is limited to current UBC students, faculty & staff members.

You can also check out the print copies of the International Financial Statistics Yearbook at call no.: HG1 .I552

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Online Resource (Free)

International Demography stats from US Census Bureau

It’s always exciting to discover a reliable source of international statistics!  The US Census bureau has a great database of demographic indicators for “countries and areas of the world with a population of 5,000 or more.”  Indicators are:

  • Birth, death, and growth rates, migration rates, infant mortality, and life expectancy
  • Fertility rates
  • Total population and population by age and sex

And, always vital when dealing with sources of international statistics – the Census Bureau evaluate national census/survey results and accurately date them to ensure consistent  data across countries.   Data is currently available in table format; after July 1, 2009 you can also generate “population pyramids!”

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