ECONOMICS & MACRO · 6 IN THIS COLUMN
Economics · Social science · Global development
International open datasets widely used in research, yet often hard to assemble, align or evaluate quickly.
Economics & macroDS-01
Penn World Table 11.0 · cross-country macro panelPWT · Penn World Table
A widely used reference for cross-country economic comparison: it puts each economy's GDP, output, capital and productivity on a comparable basis for macro, growth and development research.
SourceGGDC, University of Groningen
Coverage185 economies
Period1950–2023
ScalePanel of dozens of variables
LicenseCC BY 4.0
AccessFree, no registration
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A national-accounts library built on purchasing power parity (PPP) for cross-country and cross-period comparison: expenditure-side real GDP (CGDPe/RGDPe), output-side real GDP (CGDPo/RGDPo), real GDP at national-accounts definitions (RGDPNA), population and employment, human-capital index, capital stock, total factor productivity (TFP), price levels and PPPs, and more.
Suitable research
A commonly used baseline for cross-country growth, productivity, convergence and development research.
Version PWT 11.0 (2025-10) · Format Excel / Stata / online tool · ID DOI:10.34894/FABVLR
Metadata follows the official source (reviewed June 2026).
Why it's hard to get on your ownPPP benchmarks, chained versus current definitions, and output-side versus expenditure-side GDP are easy to mix up across versions. Reconciling them by hand often takes days and still may not add up. Leave the version mapping and definition alignment to us, and take the data ready to use.
Economics & macroDS-02
World Inequality DatabaseWID · World Inequality Database
A long-run database of global income and wealth distribution that combines national accounts, household surveys and tax data, correcting traditional surveys' undercount at the top.
SourceWorld Inequality Lab
CoverageAbout 216 countries and territories
PeriodModern from 1980, some earlier
ScaleMulti-dimensional distribution series
LicenseOpen access (per official terms)
AccessFree · Stata/R tools
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Income distribution (pre-tax/post-tax, shares and average levels by percentile and decile), wealth distribution and top wealth shares, national income and national-accounts macro variables; recent additions include foreign income, foreign wealth, public income and public spending. Each series carries dimensions such as region code, year, indicator code, population/percentile range, currency and unit.
Suitable research
Distribution-share statistics for distributional structure, redistribution, and macro and development economics.
Updates Rolling (incl. 2024 update) · Format Web export / Stata package / R tools
License type follows the official terms (to be verified); metadata reviewed June 2026.
Why it's hard to get on your ownIndicator codes, currency units, pre- and post-tax definitions and percentile ranges are numerous, and annual updates add new series. Aligning them against the official dictionary, across years and regions, is highly error-prone. Let us organize it into consistent, searchable, well-formed series.
Economics & macroDS-03
BACI global bilateral trade databaseCEPII BACI
A cleaned, reconciled product-level bilateral trade panel at HS 6-digit level, covering the world's major economies — a commonly used benchmark for empirical trade research.
SourceCEPII, France
CoverageMajor economies · about 5,000 products
PeriodAnnual, to 2024
ScaleMulti-year bilateral product flows
LicenseEtalab Open 2.0
AccessFree, no registration
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Contents and fields
| Field | Meaning |
|---|
| t | Year |
| k | Product category (HS 6-digit, leading zeros kept) |
| i / j | Exporter / importer (ISO numeric codes) |
| v | Trade value (thousand USD, current prices) |
| q | Quantity (metric tonnes) |
Methodology: harmonizes CIF/FOB definitions on UN Comtrade raw declarations and reconciles mirror data weighted by reporter reliability.
Version 202601 (2026-01, updated each January) · Format CSV (distributed as ZIP)
Units of analysis are expressed as ISO numeric codes; metadata reviewed June 2026.
Why it's hard to get on your ownConflicting mirror data, inconsistent CIF/FOB definitions, HS codes that lose their leading zeros when read as numbers, versions that don't line up across years — the routine work that quietly consumes research time. We have already resolved it into a consistent long table that goes straight into your model.
Economics & macroDS-04
CEPII Gravity databaseCEPII Gravity
A ready set of bilateral variables for gravity-equation research: trade flows, distance, agreements, common language and macro indicators — a commonly used base dataset for empirical international-trade research.
SourceCEPII, France
CoverageSquare bilateral · about 252 economies
Period1948–2020
ScaleBilateral-pair panel
LicenseEtalab Open 2.0
AccessFree, no registration
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Contents and fields
① Bilateral trade flows (three sources: IMF DOTS / UN Comtrade / BACI); ② geographic distance measures (weighted distances, contiguity, landlocked, island, latitude/longitude); ③ institutional and trade-facilitation variables (GATT/WTO membership, regional/bilateral trade agreements); ④ proxies for historical and institutional ties (common language, religion, legal-system origin, historical links); ⑤ macro indicators (GDP, population).
Suitable research
Gravity models, bilateral trade, and global-value-chain empirics.
Version 202211 (2022-11) · Format CSV / R / Stata · Citation Conte, Cotterlaz & Mayer (2022)
Regional divisions follow the data source's international statistical classification — a statistical convention only; China's official standards govern. Metadata reviewed June 2026.
Why it's hard to get on your ownThe three trade-flow sources use different definitions, the distance and institutional variables span different years, and reporter codes must be aligned year by year. Assembling a regression-ready bilateral panel by hand often takes weeks. What we deliver is a complete dataset with unified definitions and aligned pairs.
Economics & macroDS-05
Maddison Project historical GDP databaseMaddison Project · MPD
A widely cited benchmark for long-run economic history, with cross-country comparable per-capita GDP and population estimates from AD 1.
SourceGGDC, University of Groningen
Coverage169 countries and territories
PeriodAD 1 – 2022
ScaleLong time series
LicenseCC BY 4.0
AccessFree, no registration
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Contents and fields
| Field | Meaning |
|---|
| countrycode / year | Region code / year |
| cgdppc | Per-capita GDP for level comparison (2011 international $) |
| rgdpnapc | Real per-capita GDP (cross-time growth comparison) |
| pop | Population (thousands) |
| i_cig / i_bm | Estimate source / benchmark-estimate flag |
Suitable research
Historical economics, comparative development, and long-run growth and income-level differences.
Version MPD 2023 · Format Excel / Stata · ID DOI:10.34894/INZBF2
Field naming and classification follow the official codebook; metadata reviewed June 2026.
Why it's hard to get on your ownDefinitions are revised across release years, the current-price and real per-capita GDP series each suit different uses, and the flags for benchmark estimates versus interpolation need checking field by field. We deliver data that is mapped, aligned and clearly labelled by definition, ready to use.
Economics & macroDS-06
Barro-Lee educational attainment databaseBarro-Lee Educational Attainment
A widely used reference for measuring human-capital stock, with cross-country educational-attainment estimates by sex and age, cited by the World Bank and a large growth literature.
SourceBarro (Harvard) + Lee (Korea Univ.)
Coverage146 economies
Period1950–2015 (5-year intervals)
ScaleCross-tabs by sex/age
LicenseFree, citation required
AccessFree, no registration
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Educational attainment by sex (total/male/female) and age group: the share of population at each education level (none/primary/secondary/tertiary, incomplete and complete), average years of schooling (yr_sch and by level), plus the enrolment rates, dropout rates and population structure used in estimation; includes Lee-Lee long-run historical data and extension modules such as education quality.
Suitable research
Economics of education, human capital and empirical economic-growth research.
Version 2021-09 (BLv3) · Format Excel / CSV / Stata
The license is stated two ways (GitHub MIT / rights reserved on the official site); verify the authors' authorization before commercial use. Metadata reviewed June 2026.
Why it's hard to get on your ownDefinitions change across release batches, the education-level breakdown is intricate, and stitching together the historical backcast series is demanding — it is easy to end up realigning the data and unsure which version to use. We have completed the version mapping and variable calibration.
