Country Analysis and Rankings | Statistics and Basic Facts | Market Research | International Trade |
Journal Articles and News | Additional Research Resources
Country Analysis and Rankings
Business Monitor Online
University of Iowa access only
http://proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/login?url=http://www.businessmonitor.com/enter
— Country risk reports, as well as global industry and company reports are available in this resource.
CountryWatch
University of Iowa access only
http://purl.lib.uiowa.edu/countrywat
— Current news stories as well as substantial geopolitical and economic overviews on 192 countries.
EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit) ViewsWire
University of Iowa access only
— ABI/INFORM Global (http://purl.lib.uiowa.edu/proquest/abi) provides access to the reports. Click on the Publications tab, and then search using "EIU". There are several titles from which to choose; these provide analysis of the business, economic, financial, political, and regulatory environments of countries. Readers can also view EIU RiskWire.
FDI Confidence Index 
Free online resource
http://www.atkearney.com/shared_res/pdf/FDICI_2005.pdf
— Annual survey of top executives of the world's largest companies, regarding the preferred locations for foreign direct investment. Survey is conducted by AT Kearney, a global management consulting firm.
Global Corruption Report
Free online resource
http://www.globalcorruptionreport.org/
— Includes detailed assessments of the state of corruption in 34 country reports, accompanied by analyses of recent global and regional developments. Also includes the findings of the latest research into corruption and ways to combat it. Published by Transparency International, a non-governmental organization dedicated to combating political corruption worldwide.
Globalization Index
Free online resource
http://www.atkearney.com/main.taf?p=5,4,1,116
— Includes the rankings of 64 countries under 4 main topics: economic integration, personal contact, technology connectivity, and political engagement. Published by A.T. Kearney, this report is free and can be downloaded in .pdf format.
IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook
Book: Reference, fHF 1414 .W67 2003
— Analyzes the ability of nations to provide an environment that sustains the competitiveness of enterprises. Ranks 59 industrialized, emerging, and regional economies using 321 different criteria, grouped into four "Competitiveness Factors."
Index of Economic Freedom
Free online resource
http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/
— The Heritage Foundation's ranking of countries' economic freedom based on variables in ten categories. Analysis is provided for each country as are scores from previous years.
Political Risk Yearbook
University of Iowa access only
http://proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/login?url=http://www.prsgroup.com/prsgroup_shoppingcart/personal_page.aspx
— Political and economic risk assessment of 106 countries as calculated by The PRS Group.
World Bank E-Library
University of Iowa access only
http://proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/login?url=http://www.worldbank.org/elibrary
— Welcome to the World Bank e-Library, an online, fully cross-searchable portal of over 3,000 World Bank documents. Includes new books and papers as each is published.
Statistics and Basic Facts
BBC NEWS - Country Profiles
Free online resource
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/country_profiles/default.stm
— Short guides to the history, politics, and economic background of countries. Audio and video clips from the BBC archives are also included.
World Factbook
Free online resource
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
— The CIA provides short profiles of every nation in the world. Profiles include economic, social, political, and demographic information.
International Financial Statistics
University of Iowa access only
— This database from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) contains approximately 32,000 time series covering more than 200 countries and areas. Data for many countries dates back to 1948. Print versions of the most recent volumes (2003 and 2004) can also be found in the current periodicals section of the Business Library. Previous volumes are located in the Government Publications Library (HG 3881.I626).
International Statistical Sources
Free online resource
http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/govpubs/intl/intl_stats.html
— Select listing of international statistical resources available in print and online via the University of Iowa Libraries. Some of the sources listed are only accessible to those affiliated with the University of Iowa.
SourceOECD
University of Iowa access only
http://purl.lib.uiowa.edu/sourceoecd
— An e-library that provides access to many of the books, periodicals, working papers, statistical databases, and reference materials published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
WDI Online
University of Iowa access only
http://proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/login?url=http://devdata.worldbank.org/dataonline
— This World Bank database contains statistical data for over 550 development indicators, including social, economic, financial, natural-resource, and environmental indicators. Coverage of over 200 countries and 18 country groups from 1960 forward is included.
International Data Base (IDB)
Free online resource
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbnew.html
— The U.S. Census Bureau provides this online source of demographic and socio-economic statistics for 227 countries and areas of the world. The IDB combines data from country sources (especially censuses and surveys) with estimates and projections. This compilation provides information dating as far back as 1950 — and as far ahead as 2050.
Statistical Agencies (International)
Free online resource
http://www.census.gov/main/www/stat_int.html
— The U.S. Census Bureau publishes an alphabetical listing of statistical-gathering agencies in foreign countries. Includes a link to the website of each agency.
Market Research
MarketResearch.com Academic
University of Iowa access only
http://proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/login?url=http://academic.marketresearch.com
— Visitors to this site have access to extensive, detailed, market-research reports ranging from 200 to 400 pages in length with charts, tables, and graphs. These reports include information on a range of consumer products, as well as consumer profiles and demographics.
Mintel Reports
University of Iowa access only
http://proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/login?url=http://academic.mintel.com
— Mintel presents over 600 published market research reports on European, U.K.-specific, and U.S. consumer markets.
GLOBUS & NTDB (National Trade Data Bank)
University of Iowa access only
http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS1777
— Part of the Stat-USA website. Provides access to international market research, information on trade opportunities, and country analysis. Includes a trade library. Select the link for "Industry Sector Analysis Reports" for detailed reports on industries in different countries.
Snapshots: the Market Research Toolbox
University of Iowa access only
http://proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/login?url=http://www.snapdata.com
— Market research reports for the United States, Canada, China, and Mexico are available on this site. In the upper box, under "University of Iowa", click on "My Reports" in order to access the service.
International Trade
FITA.org Global Trade Portal
Free online resource
http://fita.org
— The mission of the Federation of International Trade Associations is to foster international trade by strengthening the role of local, regional, and national associations — throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada — that have an international mission. FITA's website serves as a source for B2B leads, news, events, and links to 7,000 international trade-related websites.
Interactive Tariff and Trade DataWeb
Free online resource
http://dataweb.usitc.gov
— Provides international trade statistics and U.S. tariff data from 1989 to the present. Create customized reports from user-defined queries, or view prepared reports. From the U.S. International Trade Commission; also incorporates data from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Treasury.
NAFTA Resources
Free online resource
http://www1.lanic.utexas.edu/la/mexico/nafta/index.html
— List of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) resources assembled by the Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC) at the University of Texas, Austin.
TradeStats Express
Free online resource
http://tse.export.gov
— Compiled by the U.S. Office of Trade and Economic Analysis, this database allows users to create and view color-coded graphical representations of import/export and trade-balance data.
World Chambers Network (WCN)
Free online resource
http://www.worldchambers.com
— Online network of worldwide chambers of commerce and industry. Provides a searchable database of international chambers of commerce with links to each organization's website.
WTO and GATT Research
Free online resource
http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/wtoguide.html
— This site lists the essential sources for researching the current WTO system and the predecessor system under the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Note: only U.S. materials are included here.
Documents Online (WTO)
Free online resource
http://docsonline.wto.org/gen_home.asp?language=1&_=1
— Over 100,000 searchable and browsable documents of the World Trade Organization, including the legal texts of the WTO agreements dating back to 1995, updated daily.
Journal Articles and News
ABI/INFORM Global (ProQuest)
University of Iowa access only
http://purl.lib.uiowa.edu/proquest/abi
— Search 1000 premier worldwide business periodicals for information on advertising, marketing, economics, human resources, finance, taxation, computers, and more. Also, information is available on 60,000+ companies.
Business Source Premier
University of Iowa access only
http://purl.lib.uiowa.edu/ebsco/bizpremier
— Includes full-text articles from over 3,000 journals in the fields of business, management, economics, finance, banking, accounting — including all issues of the Harvard Business Review. Also includes Datamonitor country reports.
Factiva
University of Iowa access only
http://purl.lib.uiowa.edu/factiva
— Factiva contains business news from nearly 8,000 sources from 118 countries and in 22 languages. Same-day, full-text articles and indexing of major business publications such as The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times are available here.
Lexis Nexis: Academic Search
University of Iowa access only
http://purl.lib.uiowa.edu/lexis/universe
— A full-text database covering over 5,000 publications.
World News Connection
University of Iowa access only
http://proxy.lib.uiowa.edu/login?url=http://wnc.dialog.com
— Used for monitoring non-U.S. media sources. The material in WNC is provided to the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). Analysts from FBIS domestic and overseas bureaus monitor timely and pertinent open-source materials.
Additional Research Resources
globalEDGE (Michigan State University)
http://globaledge.msu.edu/
Foreign Government Resources on the Web (University of Michigan)
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/foreignnew.html
Portals to the World (Library of Congress)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html
United Nations Research Guide (Mississippi State University)
http://library.msstate.edu/resources/guides/unitednations.asp
Doing Business
http://rru.worldbank.org/DoingBusiness/
— This database from the Work Bank provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 145 economies. The measures indicate the regulatory costs of business and can be used to analyze specific regulations that enhance or constrain investment, productivity, and growth.
Last update: September, 2006.
Send mail concerning this publication to: bus-lib@uiowa.edu.
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