UNESCAP Library Databases

AidFlows is an interactive website which visualizes how much development aid is provided and received around the world. Users can select individual donors (providing the aid) and beneficiaries (receiving the aid) to track the sources and uses of aid funding. AidFlows is the result of a partnership between the OECD, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

SDBS has annual data, from 1975 onward, on national accounts, prices, government finance, trade, balance of payments, money and banking, external debt, population, labor force, and social indicators. Other member countries' data on selected economic indicators as well as quarterly and monthly data of some indicators are also available. SDBS is updated continuously and new series are added based on emerging demands. This Internet version of SDBS, however, only contains data that are freely accessible by the public, from 1988 to 2013. Those data that are in pay-for-access databases of other international organizations are not presented here.

Capital Economics is one of the leading independent macro economic research consultancies in the world which provide regular pieces of written economic research by e-mail. The Emerging Asia Service contains the following publications - Emerging Asia Rapid Response, Emerging Asia Data Response, Emerging Asia Economics Weekly, Emerging Asia Chart Book, Emerging Asia Economics Update, Emerging Asia Economics Focus and Emerging Asia Economic Outlook.

Access: Email delivery of research and data. Please contact the Library.

CEIC Data's "best in class" databases deliver the most accurate and timely economic, sector and financial data from around the globe. Analysts on the ground compile and update hundreds of thousands of data series from hard to get sources, delivering a suite of databases relied upon by top Economists and Analysts the world over. The Library has subscribed to the Global Database, Sector Database, WorldTrend Database, China Premium Database, India Premium Database and Russia Premium Database.

Access: ID and Password required. Please contact the Library.

Database user guide

This database is published by the American Economic Association and provides bibliographic coverage of a wide range of economics-related literature. An expanded version of the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) indexes of journals, books and dissertations, EconLit covers both economic theory and application.

A set of databases on international business intelligence prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit: CountryData, World Investment Service, China Hand, Country Commerce,Country Finance, Country Forecast, Country Monitor, Country Profile, Country Report, Executive Briefing, Global Outlook, Risk Briefing, ViewsWire, World Commodity Forecasts and Worldwide Regulatory Update. Provides continuously updated, comprehensive analysis of political and economic trends, global outlook on macroeconomics, risk and executive briefings, international business newsletters, statistical tables of historical data, and more, on nearly 200 countries. Also provides access to The Economist, European Voice and Roll Call: The Newspaper of Capitol Hill since 1955.

Database webinars

Commercial reference management software package, used to manage bibliographies and references when writing.

Access: Software installation required. Please contact the Library.

Software training

The Statistics Division maintains the ESCAP online statistical database providing a regional perspective on development issues in Asia and the Pacific. The database, containing approximately 630 data series, is updated twice a year (March and September) and made available online for users.

Online database tracking crossborder greenfield investment covering all sectors and countries worldwide. It provides real-time monitoring of investment projects, capital investment and job creation with powerful tools to track and profile companies investing overseas.

Access: ID and Password required. Please contact the Library.

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) eLibrary simplifies analysis and research with direct access to the IMF’s periodicals, books, working papers and studies, and data and statistical tools. You will find information and perspective on macroeconomics, globalization, development, trade and aid, technical assistance, demographics, emerging markets, policy advice and poverty reduction. 

IMF Data provides access to authoritative, harmonized global statistical databases. Data sources include: International Financial Statistics (IFS) - covers all aspects of international and domestic finance, with history to 1948; Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS) - value of exports and imports between countries and their trading partners, with history to 1980; Balance of Payments Statistics (BOPS) - international economic transactions data and International Investment Position through 1970; and Government Finance Statistics (GFS) - budgetary and extra-budgetary financial operations data of governments, with history to 1990.

The Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions (AREAER)database, which tracks exchange and trade arrangements can also be accessed via the eLibrary.

Database user guides

JSTOR archives and provides access to more than 1,400 full-text scholarly journals across more than 50 academic disciplines. Please refer to Collections Available at Your Institution.

Coverage: begins with volume one of each title and continues to within 0-10 years of the present.

Database training

LexisNexis® is a leading global provider of content-enabled workflow solutions designed specifically for professionals in the legal, risk management, corporate, government, law enforcement, accounting, and academic markets. Provides news coverage.

Access: ID and Password required. Please contact the Library.

Meltwater News is a global online media monitoring database covering 162,000 online publications. Helps organizations measure their media coverage and stay abreast of latest media trends.

Access: ID and Password required. Please contact the Library.

NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) is the United State's leading nonprofit economic research organization. NBER researchers initially report their findings in scientific papers aimed at other professional economists in academic institutions, business, government, and the business media around the world. Nearly 700 NBER Working Papers are published each year, and many subsequently appear in scholarly journals. Programs of research include Environmental and Energy Economics,International Finance and Macroeconomics, International Trade and Investment andPolitical Economy among others.

Coverage : 1994+

OECD iLibrary is OECD’s Online Library for Books, Papers and Statistics and the gateway to OECD’s analysis and data. It hosts all content so users can find - and cite - tables and databases as easily as articles or chapters. OECD iLibrary contains all the publications and datasets released by OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), International Energy Agency (IEA), Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), OECD Development Centre, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), and International Transport Forum (ITF) since 1998 - currently (October 2010) 1 000 journal issues, 2 900 working papers, 2 500 multi-lingual summaries, 6 200 e-book titles, 14 000 tables and graphs, 21 000 chapters and articles, and 390 complete databases with more than 4 billion data points.

Database helpsheet

Relaunched in December 2010, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Online, provides access to the material contained in the 20-volume Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and the 3 volumes of Additions, as well as quarterly releases of at least 1000 new and revised entries.

A complete toolkit for language users, from learners to professionals, providing language coverage in French, German, Spanish and Italian, and learning support via instant access to Oxford's bilingual dictionaries. Included are usage examples and illustrative phrases, grammar guidance, click-through verb tables and pronunciation charts, explanations of grammatical terms, and help with spelling and punctuation. Also included are hundreds of correspondence templates including sample letters, CVs and resumes to provide practical help with writing in each language. Contextualized language reference help includes notes on life and culture, guidance on grammar and idiomatic usage, and Words of the Day.

Le nouveau Petit Robert is an everyday tool for proper usage of the French language. This online dictionary contains 60,000 entries, 300,000 definitions, etymologies, and phonetic transcriptions. It also contains quotes, examples and expressions, homonyms and conjugation of 6,500 verbs.

Access: ID and Password available in addition to IP recognition. Please contact the Library.

ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated full-text database in the market today totaling more than 19,370 titles—with over 13,010 titles in full text. This easy to use database covers a broad array of subjects including business, news, economics and the social sciences. The Library has access to a number of databases including EconLit.

Coverage : 1905 - present

Database training

RePEc is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in 72 countries to enhance the dissemination of research in economics. The heart of the project is a decentralized database of working papers, journal articles and software components. All RePEc material is freely available.

Safari Books Online is an on-demand digital library that provides searchable, online access to the full content of thousands of books, prepublication manuscripts, short documents, articles and training videos from the world's leading authors and publishers. Safari Books Online delivers access to the most current and critical technology, design and business information, as well as personalization and collaboration tools that will help your team organize and share information as they learn.

Access: ID and Password required. Please contact the Library.

ScienceDirect is a leading scientific database offering journal articles and book chapters from more than 2,500 peer-reviewed journals and more than 11,000 books. The tables of contents and article abstracts are available for all to search and browse. Full-text access is available to journals in the Economics, Econometrics and Finance subject collection, as well as key titles including - Energy Policy, Journal of Development Economics and World Development. ESCAP staff may also request single articles by contacting the Library.

Database training

SSRN is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research and is composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences. The SSRN eLibrary consists of two parts: an Abstract Database containing abstracts on over 220,200 scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers and an Electronic Paper Collection currently containing over 179,800 downloadable full text documents in pdf format.

Access: create your own free account in order to view full-text papers.

Stata is a user-friendly statistical software package program that offers a broad range tools for data management and statistical analysis.

Access: ESCAP staff can find a link to the program at P:\Public\SD\Stata11\StataMP.exe

Software training

Online database of wireline, wireless and broadband competition. Contents include wireless, broadband, and fixed-line market data for 190 countries; regional and global totals for wireless, broadband, and wireline subscribers and interactive Country Statistics Map presenting wireless, broadband, and fixed-line market data for 190 countries. 

Access: ID and Password required. Please contact the Library.

The United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database contains detailed imports and exports statistics reported by statistical authorities of close to 200 countries or areas. The database contains more than 1.75 billion trade records.

Coverage : 1962+

UNdata aims to bring major UN databases and those of several international agencies into one single internet environment. Users can access a large number of UN databases containing over 60 million data points cover a wide range of themes including Agriculture, Crime, Education, Employment, Energy, Environment, Health, HIV/AIDS, Human Development, Industry, Information and Communication Technology, National Accounts, Population, Refugees, Tourism, Trade, as well as the Millennium Development Goals indicators. Statistical databases produced by the United Nations Statistics Division are included: Energy Statistics Database, Environment Statistics Database, Gender Info,Indicators on Women and Men, Industrial Commodity Statistics Database, Millennium Development Goals Database, National Accounts Estimates of Main Aggregates, Statistics of International Trade in Services and Tourism, UN Comtrade, UNSD Demographic Statistics, and World Statistics Pocketbook.

Published by the UN Office of Legal Affairs since 1963, the Yearbook reviews legal developments of the UN and related intergovernmental organizations and includes information on national legislation and treaties concerning the legal status of the UN and related organizations, a general review of their legal activities, texts of multilateral treaties, summaries of select decisions of their administrative tribunals and of legal opinions of the UN Office of Legal Affairs, information on decisions of international courts and tribunals, etc.

As part of the UN.Skillport package provided by the Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) which allows you to learn anytime, anywhere through the web access some 18,000 e-books via books 24x7. Subjects include Business, I.T. and Office essentials.

Access: ID and Password required. OHRM emailed log in details to staff in 2009. New staff can register on the site.

UN Treaty Collection offers a comprehensive database of international treaties and related information. Databases include Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General (MTDSG), United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS), Monthly Statements of Treaties and International Agreements (MS).

The Yearbook of the United Nations is the principal reference work of the UN and provides a detailed overview of the Organization's activities. Each Yearbook is fully indexed and includes all major General Assembly, Security Council and Economic and Social Council resolutions. The complete collection (1946-2006) is now available online.

UNCTAD compiles, validates and processes a wide range of data collected from national and international sources. Through its data dissemination system, UNCTADstat, it provides free access to comprehensive statistical time series and indicators essential for the analysis of world trade, development, and interrelated issues in the areas of finance, technology, investment and durable development. For a complete list of all the available data series, please click here.

The World Development Report (WDR) has been produced on an annual basis since 1978 and is the World Bank's major analytical publication. Here you will find every page of every World Development Report published by the World Bank since the first report was released.

The World Bank provides free and open access to a comprehensive set of data about development in countries around the globe. The data catalog is a listing of available World Bank data sources. This listing will continue to be updated as additional data resources are added.

The World Bank e-Library is an electronic portal to the World Bank's full-text collection of books, reports, and other documents. It brings together in a fully indexed and cross-searchable database, over 2,000 titles published by the World Bank during the past several years, over 3,200 research working papers, and over 400 journal articles- a total of over 5,600 documents. Each new title, working paper, and journal is added to the database as they become available.

The Global Economic Monitor (GEM) provides daily updates of global economic developments, with coverage of developing as well as high-income economies. Daily data updates are provided for exchange rates, equity markets, interest rates, stripped bond spreads, commodity prices and emerging market.

The World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (OKR) is The World Bank’s official open access repository for its research outputs and knowledge products. Through the OKR, The World Bank collects, disseminates, and permanently preserves its intellectual output in digital form.

The World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) is a data consultation and extraction software with simulation capabilities. WITS gives you access to the major trade and tariffs data compilations - the COMTRADE database maintained by the UNSD; the TRAINS maintained by the UNCTAD and the IDB and CTS databases maintained by the WTO.

The World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database contains time series data for the years 1960, 1965, 1970 and annually from 1975 to 2011 for around 140 telecommunication/ICT statistics covering fixed telephone network, mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions, quality of service, Internet, traffic, staff, prices, revenue, investment and statistics on ICT access and use by households and individuals. Selected demographic, macroeconomic and broadcasting statistics are also included. For the June release, data for 2011 are available for selected indicators such as fixed-telephone subscriptions, mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions, international Internet bandwidth, fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions and percentage of individuals using the Internet. Data for over 200 economies are available.

Access: Please contact the Library.

The e-unwto is a fully cross-searchable interactive database offering a vast number of high-quality UNWTO publications including books, journals, and statistics in their respective languages. In addition to more than 900 books in English, French, Spanish, Russian or Arabic, the e-unwto also provides access to a growing number of documents which can be defined as “Gray Literature”. The latest statistical information and aggregated data on inbound and outbound tourism are very conveniently presented within the Tourism Factbook.

Access: ID and Password required. Please contact the Library.