Macro data:
IMF World Economic Outlook database: Macroeconomic variables of most countries worldwide. Examples of the variables are GDP, output gap, investment, government expenditures/lending/borrowing, inflation, unemployment, population, current account balance, etc.
OECD.Stat: Provides aggregate statistics on OECD countries and selected non-OECD countries (BRICS and Indonesia). Themes covered include general statistics, agriculture and fisheries, demography and population, development, economic projections, education and training, environment, finance, globalization, health, industry and services, information and communication technology, international trade and balance of payments, labor, national accounts, monthly economic indicators, productivity, prices and purchasing power parities, public sector, taxation and market regulation, regions and cities, science, technology and patents, social protection and well-being, and transport.
ASEANStats: The website provides aggregate data from the national statistics systems of the ASEAN member states, but data from non-ASEAN countries are also available. The main data categories are foreign direct investment, international merchandise trade, macroeconomic indicators, SDG indicators, international trade in services, transports, and labor.
World Bank’s Doing Business Data: Provides cross-country data on components of the World Bank’s famed Ease of Doing Business index.
Penn World Table: Provides country-level data on development variables such as real GDP, consumption, population, factor inputs, TFP, etc.
ADB COVID-19 Policy Database: The website provides brief descriptions of COVID-19 measures by ADB member countries. Fortnightly data on the amount by measure type are available for download.
Air Quality Open Data Platform by AQICN: The website provides air pollutants (PM2.5,PM10, Ozone ...) and meteorological data (Wind, Temperature, ...) from about 380 stations around the world.
UNCTADStat: The data website by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development The website provides country-level aggregate statistics on international trade.
FAOSTAT: The data website by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The data topics include production, food security and nutrition, food balances, trade, prices, land, inputs and sustainability, population and employment, investment, macro-economic indicators, climate change, forestry, and SDG indicators.
FRED Economic Data: The data website by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. A good source for time series of economic indicators from most countries. The most granular level of U.S. data is county-level.
World Economics and Politics Dataverse: A collaboration between Princeton University and the University of Southern California. More than 900 aggregate variables covering politics, economics, geography, social and cultural for more than 200 countries from nearly 100 datasets are available.
World-Historical Dataverse: A macroeconomic website by the University of Pittsburgh. The website is specialized in macroeconomic data from older periods.
World Inequality Database: The website provides inequality indicators such as average income (per adult national income, per adult GDP), income inequality (top 10% share, bottom 50% share, top 1% share), average wealth (per adult national wealth, wealth-income ratio), wealth inequality (top 10% share, bottom 50% share, top 1% share), carbon inequality (top 10% carbon emitters), and gender inequality (female labor income share) for 197 countries worldwide.
Micro data:
UN comtrade: Free access to detailed global trade data. Kyoto University subscribes to its premium service including bulk download of millions of records and more powerful Data API.
World Bank Microdata Library: The searchable microdata catalog of datasets collected and maintained by the World Bank.
World Bank Enterprise Surveys: Enterprise Surveys launched by the World Bank offer an expansive array of economic data on 171,000 firms in 149 countries. The surveys collect information about a country's business environment, how it is experienced by individual firms, how it changes over time, and the various constraints to firm performance and growth. The full data sets are available at the firm level.
Type: Firm data, Access: Application required, Cost: Free
World Bank Global Findex Database: Datasets with focus on financial access and financial service usage. In 2017, almost 150,000 people were surveyed (approximately 1,000 from each of 144 countries). Data include individual’s characteristics and financial behavior (ownership and/or usage) on credit card, debit card, borrowing account, deposit account, mobile and online financial services, and payments and remittances. For more details on the 2017 dataset, please follow this link.
Type: Household data, Access: Application required, Cost: Free
UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) Survey: MICS is a survey with focus on the wellbeing of women and children but also includes development variables. The survey is conducted in many countries worldwide. In East Asia, the survey was conducted in Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. The data include household characteristics, housing characteristics and living environment (drinking water, sanitation facilities), access to electricity and internet, assets (TV, radio, telephone, computer), reproductive and maternal health (adolescent birth, miscarriage, contraception, HIV, etc.), child health, nutrition, and development (breastfeeding, immunization, diet, literacy, etc.), household violence and exploitation, and social transfers. For the list of countries and available data, please consult this link. Note that the content may vary by country.
Type: Household data, Access: Application required, Cost: Free
The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program: Funded by USAID, conducted more than 400 surveys on population, health, HIV, and nutrition in more than 90 countries. There are four types of surveys i.e. Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Service Provision Assessment (SPA), AIDS Indicator Surveys (AIS), Malaria Indicator Surveys (MIS). For the available datasets, please follow this link.
Type: Household data, Access: Application required, Cost: Free
International Household Survey Network: A portal for household survey datasets worldwide. The website provides external links to the datasets. Entries can be filtered by data access.
Type: Household data, Access: Only external links provided, Cost: N/A
IPUMS-International: A collection of census microdata from around the world. Examples of Asian countries (years available) are Cambodia (1998, 2004, 2008, 2013), China (1982, 1990, 2000), Indonesia (1971, 1976, 1980, 1985, 1986, 1990, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2005, 2007, 2010), Laos (2005), Malaysia (1970, 1980, 1991, 2000), Myanmar (2014), Philippines (1990, 1995, 2000, 2010), Thailand (1970, 1980, 1990, 2000), and Vietnam (1989, 1999, 2009). The data frequency is less frequent, but the data have good comparability across countries.
Type: Household data, Access: Application required, Cost: Free
LIS: Cross-national Data Center in Luxembourg: LIS provides harmonized cross-country data from household income and wealth surveys. For countries and years available, please see their METIS website. Asian countries include China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. According to the website, three following databases are available:
Luxembourg Income Study Database (LIS): The largest available harmonized income micro-database
Luxembourg Wealth Study Database (LWS): The first cross-national wealth database in existence
ERF-LIS Database: Harmonized income/consumption micro-database combining LIS and Economic Research Forum (ERF) data
Type: Household data, Access: Application required, Cost: Free for students worldwide and researchers from financially-contributing countries (incl. Japan)
The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP): The ISSP is a “cross-national collaboration programme conducting annual surveys on diverse topics relevant to social sciences.” Asian countries that participated in the program include Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. For topics and years conducted, please follow this link.
Type: Household data, Access: Registration/application required, Cost: Free
The RIGA Database: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) compiles data on rural and urban income-generating activities from various organizations (e.g. national statistics offices, World Bank, RAND). There are two main types of datasets i.e. household-level income aggregate (RIGA-H) and individual wage employment dataset (RIGA-L). Data (year) on Asian countries available are Bangladesh (2000, 2005), Indonesia (1993, 2000), Nepal (1995-96, 2003-04), Pakistan (1991, 2001), and Vietnam (1992-93, 1997-98, 2002). For all countries and years available, please see this webpage.
Type: Household data, Access: Application required, Cost: Free
UPenn’s Status of Women and Fertility (SWAF) study: The survey focuses on fertility conducted in 1993-94 in 5 countries i.e. India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, and Thailand. Women and men were surveyed separately. Husband IDs are provided as the link between the women and the men. Data include household information, background of the respondent, work/activities, income and wealth, relationships within the family, birth history, contraception, history of marriage, and other issues between men and women.
Type: Household data, Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
J-PAL Dataverse: Over 100 datasets from randomized evaluations conducted by J-PAL researchers.
Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
openICPSR: A data repository which allows authors to deposit data used in their studies. A good source for replication data.
Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX): Provides data on social and financial performance of microfinance institutions globally. The data are currently hosted by the World Bank.
Type: Firm data, Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
Facebook Data for Good: Facebook conducts surveys on its platform. These surveys include Climate Change Opinion Survey, Small Business Survey, COVID-19 Preventative Health Survey, COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey, and Survey on Gender Equality at Home. Application is required to access microdata but aggregate data are readily downloadable.
Type: Household & firm data, Access: Application required, Cost: Free
OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA): Data based on responses to questionnaires under the PISA program. These surveys include surveys on student, well-being, educational career questionnaire administered to students, financial literacy, ICT familiarity, school, teacher, and parents. Data from years 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018 are available.
Type: Household data, Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC): The survey measures cognitive and workplace skills of adults in more than 40 countries. Participating Asian countries include Japan, Korea, Indonesia, and Singapore. Public use data files are available for download.
Type: Household data, Access: Downloadable without registration (public use files), Cost: Free
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT): CIAT is an intergovernmental organization with the vision to create a sustainable food future. The organization conducts research in many countries such as Colombia, Uganda, Nicaragua, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Honduras, Brazil, Peru, and Viet Nam. The organization is dedicated to open data and its datasets are available on Harvard Dataverse.
Type: Household data, Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) ODA Loan Project DATA: A searchable database on JICA’s ODA loan projects. Data include country, project name, sector/subsector, date, amount, loan term, and executing agency.
Type: Loan-level data, Access: Displayed on the website, Cost: Free
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Dataverse: IFPRI is a research institute founded in 1975. IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. Its five strategic research areas are Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply, Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for All, Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry, Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies, and Strengthening Institutions and Governance.
Access: Downloadble without registration, Cost: Free
Non-Asian Countries
Macro data:
European Environmental Agency (EEA): EEA website provides data on Europe’s environment. The website also has some spatial datasets e.g. Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, WISE EIONET spatial data sets, WISE WFD protected area spatial data sets, WISE WFD reference spatial data sets, WISE Water Accounts Spatial Units dataset, and WISE Water Accounts database for Europe.
Africa Information Highway by AfDB: Curated by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the website is a portal to open data platforms of 54 African countries. These country-specific data platforms are sponsored by AfDB, resulting in a certain degree of standardization.
Micro data:
European Social Survey: Data from surveys on perception towards many aspects of life in 38 European countries. Repeated cross-sectional every 2 years. As of now, 9 rounds or surveys have been conducted (2002 – 2018). Topics surveyed include socio-demographic profile, media use, internet use, social trust, politics, subjective wellbeing, social exclusion, crime, religion, perceived discrimination, national and ethnic identity, human values, etc.
Type: Household data, Access: Registration required, Cost: Free
Pacific Data Hub: Provides microdata from surveys conducted in Pacific island countries by various organizations such as the national statistic offices, World Bank, and UNICEF. Examples include household socio-economic survey, High Frequency Phone Survey on COVID-19, agriculture census, manufacturing survey, labor force survey, etc.
Type: Household & firm data, Access: Application required, Cost: Free
Inter-American Development Bank’s Latin American and Caribbean Enterprise Survey: Enterprise survey conducted by IAB in Latin American and Caribbean countries. According to the website, “The dataset records firm-level behavior related to a variety of aspects such as sales, supplies, foreign trade and competition, innovation, conflict resolution, crime prevention, business environment and government relations, labor and skills, financing, performance, among others.”
Type: Firm data, Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
UK Data Service: Provides a data catalog of UK-based datasets and hosts these datasets. Examples of survey data are from annual population survey, quarterly labour force survey, active lives children and young people survey, vacancy survey, prices survey, monthly wages and salaries survey, etc. For the data catalog, please follow this link.
Instituto Nacional de Estadística: The National Statistics Institute of Spain. The main data categories are demography and population, society, living conditions, labor market, science and technology, agriculture, and services.
Type: Household data, Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
Australian Early Development Census (AEDC): The Australian nationwide data collection of early childhood development. The five key areas focused are physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, and communication skills and general knowledge. For available variables, please see the AEDC Microdata application form. A formal application is required.
Type: Household data, Access: Application required, Cost: Fee applies for microdata
Data Repositories for Journal Papers: These websites contain replication data for studies published in the journal or by the author/institution.
American Economic Association
Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
The Quarterly Journal of Economics
Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
Review of Financial Studies
Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
Review of Economics and Statistics
Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
Journal of Development Economics
Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
Journal of Public Policy
Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
Journal of Politics
Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
Tilburg University
Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
NBER’s Public Use Data Archive: NBER hosts many datasets for public use. These datasets are obtained as per requests of NBER-affiliated researchers for their projects.
Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
Data Repositories by Economics Professors
Joshua Angrist Dataverse: The website features datasets by Prof. Joshua Angrist e.g. the replication dataset for Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Schooling and Earnings? The datasets are hosted by Harvard Dataverse.
Access: Downloadable without registration, Cost: Free
Edward Miguel Dataverse: The website features datasets by Prof. Edward Miguel, including Kenya Life Panel Surveys and replication datasets e.g. the replication dataset for Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities. The datasets are hosted by Harvard Dataverse.
Access: Application required, Cost: Free
Benjamin Olken Dataverse: The website features datasets by Prof. Benjamin Olken. As of now, only replication data for Citywide Effects of High-Occupancy Vehicle Restrictions: Evidence from “3-In-1” in Jakarta is available. The dataset is hosted by Harvard Dataverse.
Edmund Malesky Dataverse: The website features datasets by Prof. Edmund Malesky e.g. the replication dataset for Firm growth and corruption: empirical evidence from Vietnam. The datasets are hosted by Harvard Dataverse.
IZA Institute of Labor Economics Dataset Repository: IZA is a non-profit research institute located in Bonn, Germany. IZA hosts more than 1,600 scholars from around the world. The data repository allows users to deposit labor economics-related datasets. Application is required.
Eurostat by the European Commission: The website provides microdata based on the European Community Household Panel, European Union Labour Force Survey, Community Innovation Survey, European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, Structure of Earnings Survey, Adult Education Survey, European Road Freight Transport Survey, European Health Interview Survey, Continuing Vocational Training Survey, Community Statistics on information Society, Micro-Moments Dataset, Harmonised European Time Use Survey, Household Budget Survey, and Farm Structure Survey. Using these datasets requires applying for a license. Public microdata based on the Labour Force Survey and the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions are available.
Type: Household data, Access: License required, Cost: Free
The Family Life Project, Phase I, United States, Sept 2003-Jan 2008: The Family Life Project focuses on early development over the first 3 years of children in poor rural areas in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Parts of the data are restricted and require an application, including the GPS coordinates. The data are currently hosted by ICPSR.
Type: Household data, Access: Registration/application required, Cost: Free
World Value Survey: Individual-level survey on perception on various topics including social values, attitudes & stereotypes, happiness & well-being, social capital, trust & organization membership, economic values, corruption, migration, security, postmaterialist index, science & technology, religious values, ethical values and norms, political interest & political participation, political culture & political regimes, and demographics. The survey was conducted in many countries including but not limited to Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Type: Individual data, Access: Application required, Cost: Free
Innovation for Poverty Action (IPA) Dataverse: IPA is a non-profit organization which conducts research on many poverty-related topics including but not limited to microfinance. The website provides datasets by IPA conducted in many countries.
Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) Dataverse: The RLMS is a series of nationally representative surveys conducted jointly by the Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The surveys were conducted annually from 1994 to 2015.
Type: Household-level, Access: Application required, Cost: Free