PSGSA Research Resources

Index
General Resources
Census Data
Civil and Political Liberties
Constitutions
Debt
Economic Development and Growth
Education
Electoral Results and Systems
Americal Electoral Data
Immigration
Income Distribution
National Statistical Offices
Political Institutions
Rulers
Trade
Journal Articles
Working Papers
 
 

General Resources

The Harvard-MIT Data Center is the principal distributor of quantitative social science data at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Michigan.  It maintains a large library of electronic data from all these sources, a growing collection of unique data sets, and an extensive codebook library.
  The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), located within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, is a membership-based, not-for-profit organization serving member colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. ICPSR provides access to the world's largest archive of computerized social science data.
  This website provides electronic resources for political scientists in all fields.
 
 


Census Data


 

Civil and Political Liberties

Since 1972, Freedom House has published an annual assessment of state state of freedom by assigning each country and territory the status of "Free," "Partly Free," or "Not Free" by averaging their political rights and civil liberties ratings. This data can be downloaded from this site.
 
 

Constitutions

This site provides the texts of a large selection of constitutions, both past and present, for around 130 countries.
  This index offers constitutions, charters, amendments, and other related documents. Nations of the world are listed
alphabetically, and each is linked to its constitutional text posted somewhere on the Internet.
 
 

Debt

The HIPC Debt Database is a comprehensive collection of HIPC debt statistics and CID calculations.  The database is an Excel Workbook which contains nearly fifty worksheets.  Each worksheet presents a specific debt statistic by year (1992-1997, 1998) and HIPC country.  There are several different types of variables on principal, interest, debt service, and debt transfer.
  Located in Politics Department Data Center.
The CD provides statistical data for 137 countries reporting debt under the World Bank Debtor Reporting System and summary data for the country groups. The tables are designed to facilitate cross-country comparison of key statistics, including summary statistical tables for income and regional groups. The country tables presents a wealth of information about each country's external debt. They cover total external debt stocks and flows, major economic aggregates, and key debt ratios. Provided are data on debt service paid, average terms of new commitments, currency composition of long-term debt, debt restructuring, and scheduled debt service projections. Regional and income-group tables are also included in this volume.
 
 

Economic Development and Growth

This page is a resource for anyone studying economic growth.  It contains datasets, working papers, links to other researchers on growth and to other sites.
  Located in the Politics Department Data Center.
  Paul Hensel's homepage provides a number of links to sites related to economic development.
 
 

Education

Barro-Lee dataset provides the estimates for two different age groups- over age 15 and over age 25- and a breakdown by sex at five-year intervals for the years 1960-2000. It also includes the number of years of schooling achieved by the average person at the various levels and at all levels of schooling combined.
 
 

Electoral Results and Systems

Located on 6th floor Reference of Bobst Library
The almanac provides number of and percentage of seats and votes for most countries going back to their first elections until 1991.
  Located in Bobst Library
The journal has electoral results since 1991 for most countries.
  Usually the most recent election results for national and some local elections.  Also has links to other resources for elections.
  More electoral results for various countries and links to political parties' sites.
  Lijphart's election data containing election results (some at the district level), electoral formulas, and links to related sites.
 
 

American Electoral Data

Provides party registration figures and other information.
  Provides demographic figures.
  Provides figures on campaign spending at the national level. (Note: This page tends to load slowly.)
  Gives precinct level voting information.
  National Election Surveys
  Provides ratings of members of Congress as liberal or conservative.
  General information on American politics
  Located on 6th floor Reference of Bobst Library.
This book provides American electoral results.
  Located on 6th floor Reference of Bobst Library.
 
 

Immigration

Located on 6th floor Reference of Bobst Library.
This statistical handbook provides information on number of immigrants, emigrants, and asylum seekers along with countries of origin.

 

Income Distribution

The Deininger and Squire dataset contains data on Gini coefficients, cumulative quintile shares, explanations regarding the basis on which the Gini coefficient was computed, and the source of the information. There are two data-sets, one containing the "high quality" sample and the other one including all the information (of lower quality) that had been collected.
  As part of a project analyzing poverty and social assistance in the transition economies, a Bank research team created a database of household expenditure and income data from recent surveys - the HEIDE database.  Data are for countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and are in STATA 5.0 format.
  The Luxembourg Income Study offers household surveys conducted in Europe for information on income, employment, and pensions among other things.  Working papers are also available from the site.
  What is the relationship between inequality and the economic success of nations, firms, and local communities? This question is the central focus of the Network on the Effects of Inequality on Economic Performance.  This site provides selected working papers and a list of publications related to the topic.
 
 

National Statistical Offices

Provides links to all national statistical offices where cultural, demographic, economic, and social data can be found.



Political Institutions

ACLP dataset assembled by Mike Alvarez, Jose Antonio Cheibub, Fernando Limongi, and Adam Przeworski that contains both political and economic data for 135 countries from 1950 or the year of independence to 1990 or the last year for which economic growth data is available. The dataset was used in Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Material Well-Being in the World, 1950-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
  Located on 6th floor Reference of Bobst Library.
The handbook is an annual reference book containing separate sections on every country in the world and more than 100 intergovernmental organizations.  Each edition completely updates political developments over the past year while providing background information to keep the updates in context.
 
 

Rulers

This site contains lists of heads of state and heads of government (and, in certain cases, de facto leaders not occupying either of those formal positions) of all countries and territories, going back to about 1800.
 
 

Trade

Sachs, Jeffrey D. and Andrew M. Warner Trade Openness Indicators.   A data set of 1s and 0s which represent whether a country has open trade or not (Microsoft Excel).
  Paul Hensel's homepage contains a number of links to sites with trade data.
 
 

Journal Articles

Working Papers
National Bureau of Economic Research
  Princeton Industrial Relations Working Papers
  New York University's C.V. Starr Center of Economics
  This is the home page of the Society for Political Methodology , the Political Methodology Section of the American Political Science Association, and the central web site for the political methodology community. The primary purpose of this site is to serve as the gateway to the Electronic Paper Archive. From here you can view abstracts of conference and working papers online and download papers for local printing.

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