CANSIM and more for ECON 807

I hear that the hard-working students in ECON 807 (Macroeconomic Theory and Policy) have hit a roadblock with their assignment -- access to CANSIM via the Statistics Canada site has been interupted lately as Statistics Canada is experiencing website issues.

Fortunately, SFU researchers have a back-up option! We also provide CANSIM access via the CHASS servers at UToronto.

But wait, there's more! I hear that your research topics might touch on labour issues, gender wage gaps, international trade and finance, foreign direct investment... and many other socioeconomic topics. While I have your attention, I'll list a few other resources that may prove useful.

In no particular order... 

• Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada provides trade statistics categorized by NAICS codes.
    
• UN COMTRADE offers trade statistics using SITC and HS classifications.
   
• Passport offers economic and demographic data for every country in the world, as well as some product consumption data for major markets. Data is largely extracted from official sources such as those listed in this post, but forecasts are also provided based on the publisher's (Euromonitor's) proprietary algorithms. Note, also, that Passport has recently added some macroeconomic modeling, natural resource, and business dynamics data and functionality that may prove useful for your research.
    
• Thomson Reuters Eikon + Datastream, our newest database, provides access to detailed international company, commodity, and economic data. Please note: access is limited to in-library use and this database can take some time to learn to use effectively.
   
• UNCTADstat provides a comprehensive collection of data on over 190 countries and territories and 50 economic or trade groups, with coverage of trade (merchandise & services), commodity prices, export/import structure, FDI, and selected indicators of development.
   
• World Bank: DataBank: Easy access to several key international data sets such as Gender Stats, Education Statistics, World Development Indicators, and Health, Nutrition, and Population Statistics.
   
• Several other major international governmental organizations provide detailed data that you may find useful; for example, the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, International Labour Orgnization, UN, and the OECD.

Still not finding what you need? Try our Statista database.  If it has a barchart that comes close to your topic, be sure to select the Release tab to the left of the chart and follow the link to the original source. Read more about Statista here.

And if Statista also fails to produce the sorts of statistics you need, try the following guide: Statistical resources: Data & statistics information.

We're always happy to help dig up some data here in the SFU Library! Send me a note if none of the above sources fit your needs, or contact one of my colleagues through our "Ask a Librarian" services.

-- MarkB

​(with huge thanks to Carla Graebner, our intrepid Data Librarian, for her assistance!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark Bodnar
Economics & Business Librarian
mbodnar@sfu.ca