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Resources for International Business  a selection of the CEOExpress Research Center
This guide will uncover some useful sources of information for international business. These include full-text documents (such as country studies) available from the federal government, as well as economic and financial information from international and inter-governmental organizations. Many other resources (such as directories of companies in selected countries, business news sources and stock market reports from various parts of the world) may be found by returning to the Rutgers University Libraries Business Research Guide. A. Background MaterialsCountryWatch is an online service which summarizes information from many US and international sources. Please note that its graphics-intensive Webpages will take some time to load. The Country Reviews are downloadable as PDF files, which are quite large. (Rutgers-restricted Access) The CIA World Factbook has profiles of countries and other national entities. Twice a year, the World Bank puts out the World Economic Outlook reports which analyze the state of the world economy and make trade and economic projections for countries and regions. (Also available in print: ALEXANDER International Documents; DANA REF HC 59. W6) The International Economic Review is a monthly publication of the US International Trade Commission, and focuses on trade developments as they affect the United States. The Europa World Year Book (DANA, DOUGLASS REF JN1.E85; ALEXANDER REF D2.E823) has extensive essays on major international and regional trade communities and individual countries, as well as basic economic and trade data. Companion volumes include:
There is also International Tax Summaries: A Guide for Planning and Decisions, (DANA REF K 4505.4 .I54) which reviews taxation laws and regulations in over 90 countries, as well as Corporate Taxes: A Worldwide Summary from PriceWaterhouseCoopers (ALEX, CAMDEN STACKS; DANA, KILMER REF HD 2753 .A3 C67) 
B. Regional InformationFor information on Asia and the Pacific Rim, check out Portal to Asian Internet Resources, based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There's a section on "Business and Economy" at the Middle East Network Information Center at the University of Texas. Another site with links to country information in this region is ArabDataNet.com from the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce. Use EUbusiness to find information from and about the European Union as well as countries in Europe. (Registration required) An extensive collection of links for business, economics and law resources related to Russia and Eastern Europe is REESweb - Russian and East European Studies Internet Resources For information on Latin America, a good starting point is Business in Latin America from the Latin American Network Information Center. The Secretariats or homepages of the various regional economic or trade communities are:
Many scholarly articles and research reports on these trade communities may be found with CIAO: Columbia International Affairs Online. (Rutgers-restricted Access)
C. Country-specific InformationVarious U.S. Government agencies collect and publish information on many (though not all) countries of the world. Some of the more important series are:
General information on countries of the world are also available from other governments and intergovernmental sources, as well as from firms offering business services:
Quick links to Regional & Country Profiles from many international, intergovernmental, and non-governmental sources are available through the ELDIS Gateway to Development Information Other useful Websites, organized by country and topic, may be found by using Portals to the World from the Library of Congress. Information on specific industrial sectors of various countries are also available:
D. StatisticsI. Consumer and Demographic InformationStart with the United Nations Common Database for links to hundreds of statistical series. The United Nations Statistical Yearbook (ALEXANDER International Documents, DANA REF HA12.5.U63) is a basic source for social, economic, and demographic data for countries of the world. Statistics are detailed and reliable but can be slow in publication. Some current data appears in the U.N. Monthly Bulletin of Statistics. (DANA REF HA12.5.U631) Detailed tables on the sales and consumption of products and services, by country, may be found in International Marketing Data and Statistics. (CAMDEN, DANA, KILMER REF HA 42 .I56) There is also a companion volume: European Marketing Data and Statistics. (CAMDEN, DANA, KILMER REF HA 1107 .E87) Another source of socio-economic data, covering education, libraries, broadcasting, and the media is the UNESCO Statistical Yearbook. (ALEXANDER International Documents; CAMDEN, DANA, KILMER REF AZ 361 .U45) Selected tables are available at the UNESCO Institute for Statistics Website. Apart from population and poverty statistics, the World Health Statistics Annual (DANA REF RA 421 .W6; LSM International Documents) yearbook has detailed data on causes of death and mortality. Selected international and national data sets are also available on the World Health Organisation Statistical Information System. The World Bank publishes the World Development Indicators (Rutgers-restricted Access) which include extensive economic, demographic, social, environmental, educational, and cultural indicators on countries, regions, and economic groupings of the world. The print version of World Development Indicators (ALEXANDER International Documents REF HC 59.15 .W656; Scholarly Communication Center CD-ROM; CAMDEN REF HC 59.15 .W656) comes out annually; most of the text and samples of the tables on labor, education, the economy, are available online as PDF documents at the World Development Indicators Website. The complete Country Data Tables are also online. The Social Indicators of Development (ALEXANDER International Documents HC 59.69 .S63; CAMDEN, DANA REF HC 59.69 .S63) is also from the World Bank; this data is to "provide a picture of the social effects of economic development." The database, searchable by country and topic, is made possible by the Center for International Earth Science Information Network. The International Data Base, maintained by the Census Bureau, combines data from country sources with the Bureau's estimates. This resource contains mostly demographic and some socio-economic data. II. Economic ConditionsThe International Monetary Fund publishes the International Financial Statistics Online, (Rutgers-restricted Access) which is a standard source of economic and financial data for member countries of the IMF. The data is also available in print in the annual International Financial Statistics Yearbook (ALEXANDER International Documents; CAMDEN REF HG 61 .I57; DANA REF HG 4007 .I626) Selected tables from their World Economic Outlook Database are available on their Website; the tables are in comma-delimited format. Then, there is the outdated (1997) CIA Handbook of International Economic Statistics, (ALEXANDER US DOCS, DANA, KILMER REF HA 155 .U54A) which is available online from the University of Missouri-St Louis Libraries. The World Bank has its annual compilation of economic, financial, and trade data entitled World Tables, (ALEXANDER International Documents; CAMDEN, DANA, KILMER REF HC 59 .W669) with up to 20 years of data for its member countries. Their Website has Quick Reference Tables with GNP and GDP figures. With fewer statistics and more discussion, the United Nations presents its view of trends and policies in the world economy with the annual World Economic and Social Survey. (ALEXANDER International Documents; DANA REF HC 59 .A1974) The advance unedited text of Chapter I ("The World Economy") from the last few issues is available online at the UN Website. The Year Book of Labour Statistics (ALEXANDER International Documents; DANA REF HD 4826 .I63) from the International Labour Organization has data extracted from up to three decennial censuses for more than 180 countries and territories. Coverage is of active work force by industry, by sex, and by occupation. Selected data tables on employment, unemployment, and wages are available online from the LABORSTA database. A related publication is Key Indicators Of The Labour Market, with selected tables online. Also, data tables from the 1997-98 World Labour Report covered trade unions, strikes, and labor force trends. [ALEXANDER DOC HD 6483 .I64; DANA HD 6483 .I64]
Labor migration statistics are available from the ILO in their International Labour Migration Database. From 1 January 2008, the ILM database has been integrated with the ILO Database on Labour Statistics: LABORSTA. On the LABORSTA welcome page, click on "Migration - International Labour Migration Statistics: 1986-2006".
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Product (GNP) data for selected countries and years are available from the Penn World Table server at the University of Pennsylvania. The Joint BIS-IMF-OECD-World Bank Statistics on External Debt database will provide data on loans and debt securities issued to national governments, from 1990 to the present. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference's Ankara Centre (more formally known as SESRTCIC: Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries) has built up a statistical database called BASEIND: Basic Socio-Economic Indicators, covering the 57 member nations of the OIC. Trends in Private Investment in Developing Countries is an IFC Economics Department Database. A related resource is the Privatization Database from the World Bank, which covers transactions in developing countries from 1988 to 2003. Regional coverage is provided by the following:
III. Trade and IndustryInternational Trade Statistics is an annual report from the World Trade Organization, with statistical data in PDF and Microsoft Excel formats. This site also provides acces to selected historical time-series data. The International Monetary Fund publishes the Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook (ALEXANDER International Documents; CAMDEN, DANA, KILMER REF HF 1014 .I52) and the Direction of Trade Statistics Yearbook (ALEXANDER International Documents; CAMDEN, DANA, KILMER REF HF 91 .I651) International Financial Statistics Online (Rutgers-restricted Access) includes a summary of the balance of payments data. The International Trade Statistics Yearbook (ALEXANDER International Documents REF HF 91 .U473; DANA, KILMER REF HF 91 .U473) from the United Nations provides statistics on commodities and merchandise trade, organized by the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC). Five years of these import and export statistics are also available online at the International Trade Centre of UNCTAD/WTO. The International Trade Centre of UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) and the WTO also provides quick tables and graphs by Countries. Another useful compilation from the UN is the International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics. It gives data by country showing global and regional trends, and data by commodity (three-digit ISIC) for developed countries. UNCTAD also provides access to its TRAINS database (TRade Analysis and INformation System), which is searchable by Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) numbers. Then there is Manufacturing Worldwide: Industry Analyses, Statistics, Products, and Leading Companies and Countries (DANA Reference Desk), where industries are organized by the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC). For commodities, start with the UN Commodity Trade Statistics Database, which has export and import data going back to 1962, for commodities by Harmonized System (HS) or SITC. You can also refer to the UNCTAD Commodity Yearbook (ALEXANDER International Documents REF HF 1040 .Y42; DANA REF HF 1040 .Y42), which has exports, imports, and, in some cases, consumption figures for commodities by SITC.
Every two years, the Food and Agriculture Organization publishes the Commodity Market Review for agricultural products. A new biennial publication is the State of Agricultural Commodity Markets.
For fisheries data, consult the FAO Yearbook of Fishery Statistics, which comes in two segments: "Capture Production" and "Commodities." (DANA REF HD 9000.4 .F8 and DANA REF HD 9000.4 .F58) The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture reviews trends in production, utilization and trade. There is also an extensive searchable database called FAOSTAT covering agriculture, fisheries, and forestry production and trade. Foreign direct investment is also tracked by UNCTAD; a database of FDI Statistics from the last 30 years is available, but you have to register in order to access it. Otherwise, annual data from 1997-2002 are available as individual PDF files. FDI Country Profiles for 112 economies are also available, along with Country Fact Sheets for 187 economies. A related annual publication from UNCTAD is the World Investment Report (1991-2006) "covers the latest trends in foreign direct investment around the World and analyses in depth one selected topic related to foreign direct investment and development." U.S. and regional coverage is available from several sources:
IV. International Classification Schemes
Jon Haveman's Industry Concordances, now maintained by Raymond Robertson, provides many correspondence tables between the major classification systems.
For U.S. trade figures, use the HTS - Harmonized Tariff Schedule (ALEXANDER DOC REF; CAMDEN REF-COM; DANA REF KF 6654.599 .U55) - which expands to the 10-digit level.
You can also search by product keyword on the USITC's Tariff Database.
V. Resource GuidesFor many other sources of statistical data, check out the following:
E. Current Periodicals and News
Here are some e-journals and magazines with a focus on international markets. International business news sources may be found on a separate Webpage: Business News Sources.
F. Ready Reference ToolsI. Dictionaries and GlossariesThe Dictionary of International Trade, (DANA, KILMER REF HF 1373 .R67) by Jerry Rosenberg of the Rutgers Business School, has more than 4,000 entries. Shim, Siegel, and Levine's Dictionary of International Business Terms (DANA REF HD 62.4 .S55) has brief definitions for terms and phrases related to international business, commerce, economics, and trade.
II. Resources for International Transactions
G. Resource GuidesInternational Business Information: How to Find it, How to Use it (CAMDEN, KILMER REF HF 54.5 .P33; DANA Reference Desk) by Pagell and Halperin is an excellent guide to information resources in print and online. Another guide to print resources, now a little dated, is International Trade Sources: A Research Guide by Schreiber (ALEXANDER DOCREF Z 7164 .C8 S33 1997; DANA REF HF 1379 .C8 S33 1997).
The very best Website for international business resources is probably
VIBES - Virtual International Business and Economics Sources.
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