More Resources:

International Business

Business Research Guides

Business Databases

Global Environment of Business Class Guide

Definitions:

Disposable Income: An individual's after-tax income available for spending and saving (GDP per capita).
Discretionary Income: An individual's income available for spending after deducting essentials such as food, shelter, clothing.
Gross Domestic Product:  The total value of goods produced and services provided in a country in one year (Oxford American Dictionary).
Gross National Income, Atlas Method (formerly Gross National Product):  The sum of value added by all resident producers plus any product taxes (less subsidies) not included in the valuation of output plus net receipts of primary income (compensation of employees and property income) from abroad. Source: World Bank national accounts data, and OECD National Accounts data files.
Gross National Product:  See: Gross National Income.
BoP (Balance of Payments): A countries national trading position and its lending and borrowing--a record of transactions between countries--what is owed to other countries and what is owed from other countries.
ICRG (International Country Risk Guide): Uses a Financial Risk Index to assess a country's financial, economic, and political risk (ability to pay its way).
LCU (Local Currency Units): The currency of the country (nominal indicator)
PPP (Purchasing Power Parity): The PPP conversion factor shows how much of a country's currency is needed in that country to buy what $1 would buy in the United States.

Online Definition Sources:

World Development Indicators Variable List
Definitions from World Development Indicators, provided by the University of Michigan Documents center.

World Bank Group Development Education Program: Beyond Economic Growth Student Book Glossary

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Online Sources

Global EDGE
An outline of the business climate, political structure, history, and statistical data for about 196 countries. It also includes regional and country specific links in addition to a general overview of each geographic area , as well as country rankings by risk ratings, press freedom index, and corruption index. A Megasite for international business, trade information, and economic trends. Most data is free but does require registration.

Doing Business Project from World Bank
Provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 178 countries.
(See also print source below)

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) UW restricted
Provide up-to-date analysis on worldwide market trends and business strategies.  Assess and forecast political, economic and business conditions in almost 200 countries. Coverage includes Country Reports, Country Profiles, Viewswire (daily analysis service), Country Commerce, eBusinessForum and more.

Europa World Year Book UW restricted
Provides recent history and major social, economic and political events of individual countries. Includes statistics on external trade by country.

The Fraser Institute
An independent organization with a goal to raise the level of understanding about economic and social policy. Their Economic Freedom of the World Annual Report contains Country Data Tables and reports on world economic freedom, investment and growth (Link to Economic Freedom from left frame of opening page).

IMD World Competitiveness Online UW restricted
The World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) analyzes and ranks the ability of nations to create and maintain an environment that sustains the competitiveness of enterprises. World Competitiveness Online provides access to the entire WCY database including a 5-year time series.  The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook measures 55 countries on the basis of 331 criteria.

InfoNation
This database allows viewing and comparing up-to-date statistical data (overview, economy, environment, health, and technology) for the Member States of the United Nations.

International financial statistics - UW restricted
"The IFS database contains approx. 32,000 time series covering more than 200 countries and areas and includes all series appearing on the IFS country pages; exchange rate series for all International Monetary Fund member countries, plus Aruba and the Netherland Antilles: major International Monetary Fund account series; and most other world, area, and country series from the IFS World Tables."

NationMaster
This centralized database allows comparison of countries by various statistical data compiled from sources such as the CIA World Factbook, UN, and OECD. Users can easily generate maps and graphs.

Source OECD  UW restricted
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Online Library (for European Union), which includes monographs and annual reports by theme; periodicals; and statistics.  Use drop down menus (e.g., OECD Factbook, Statistics at a Glance, Statistical Annuals) OR select documents from left frame (e.g., Main Economic Indicators, OECD Economic Outlook) .

World Bank  World Development Indicators  (free web sites)
Economic indicators including data and statistics on various developing countries and regions.

      WDI List of Time Series Indicators - Definitions

• WDI Online (World Development Indicators) UW restricted
  World Bank provides general current and time series statistical data for countries.

• GDF Online  (Global Development Finance) UW restricted
  World Bank provides current and time series debt and other financial data by country.

World Economic Forum
This international organization engages leaders in partnerships to pursue economic and social activities that will improve the world.  They provide access to global competitive reports such as the following:

• Global Competitiveness Report 
  (2007/08 and 2005/06 Books in Reference collection on 1st floor of Library.  Call No: HF1414 G563)
  Global Competitiveness Report 2007-08
  This study is one of the leading monitors of the competitive condition of 100 countries (includes competitiveness rankings, problematic factors for business and much more).  The report focuses on some of the key factors that help determine economic growth and explain why some countries are more successful than others in raising income levels and opportunities for their respective populations in joining the upper ranks of international competitiveness.
• Global Information Technology Report
  This report is a benchmarking tool for determining countries IT strengths and weaknesses.  It is an assessment of how prepared countries are to capture the benefits of participating in a networked world. 
• Women's Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap
  This is a benchmarking tool to assess the size of the gender gap, ranking 58 countries by the level of advancement of their female population.  Five areas are focused on: economic participation, economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment and health and well-being.
• Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report
  The World Economic Forum index provides cross country analysis for Travel and Tourism in 124 countries. Travel and tourism can impact national prosperity and economic growth.
• The Arab World Competitiveness Report
  Coverage includes13 Arab economies. Rankings are presented in three country groups according to the stage of development to enable benchmarking against peers in other parts of the world.

Government Sources:

U.S. Census Bureau
Contains a Business section, which includes a foreign trade division. U.S. Department of Labor

• Foreign Labor Trends - This series produced by the US Dept of Labor provides "information on labor institutions, practices, and recent key developments in the selected countries reported. Each report provides valuable information in assessing progress made by the reported country in complying with internationally recognized worker rights required under bilateral or regional trade agreements."
• Foreign Labor Statistics - International comparisons of hourly compensation costs; productivity and unit labor costs; labor force, employment and unemployment rates; and consumer prices for selected countries. The comparisons relate primarily to the major industrial countries, but other countries are included in certain measures.

U.S. Department of State

• Country Background Notes
  Gives brief economic and political updates for countries worldwide. 
  
  
• World Factbook - CIA Country Profiles
  Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) gives economic, political, and demographic information on all countries. Includes poverty level, household income or consumption level by percentage, inflation rate, employment rate, GDP purchasing power parity (e.g., Disposable Income), etc.

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Print Sources:
(*Note: All Books in Reference Collection are on the 1st Floor of Library)

African Telecommunication/ICT Indicators 2008: At a Crossroads  
Call No: REFERENCE HE8461 A37

Asia-Pacific Telcommunication/ICT Indicators: Broadband in Asia-Pacific: Too Much, Too Little?
Call No: REFERENCE HE89341 A85

Doing Business:
Call No: REFERENCE K563 B87 D65
(Latest 2 editions in Reference; Earlier edition in Bothell/CCC Stacks)
Annual report from World Bank comparing regulation in 178 world economies. Quantitative indicators are provided for 10 stages of a business's life: starting a business, dealing with licenses, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business.

The Economist magazine contains economic, financial and emerging-market indicators for some countries. Included are consumer prices, wages, retail sales, unemployment, etc.    Financial and economic indicators are at the back of the publication.
(Available online from EBSCO's Master File Complete 1990-present; Expanded Academic Index 1988-present; and Lexis-Nexis 1975-present; UW restricted databases     Also in Hard copy in the library--with latest edition on 1st floor and prior issues with periodicals on 3rd floor; and on microfilm from1985-2002).

Measuring the Information Society 2007
Call No: REFERENCE HE7700 I476 2007
International Telecommunications Union Opportunity Index and World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators.  Country tables are provided toward the back of the book.

Succeeding Like Success: The Affluent Consumers of Asia
Call No: REFERENCE HF 5415.33 A78 W664
Provides a combination of demographics, history, and economics with projections to 2015 that address the purchasing power of affluent Asian consumers in 12 key Asian/Pacific markets.

2008 World Industry & Market Outlook
Call No: REFERENCE HC10 W69 2008
Demographic data for over 120 major global industries. Provides current estimates of the size of the largest manufacturing, retail, wholesale and services industries in the world.

World Consumer Lifestyles Databook
Call No: REFERENCE HF5415.32 W67

Yearbook of Statistics: Telecommunication Services
Call No: REFERENCE HE7601 I532)
This Chronological Time Series 1995-2004 is provided by the International Telecommunications Union. Data are presented by country.  A list of countries, definitions, abbreviations and acronyms are given at the beginning of the book.

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