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Databases and forums with an international orientation

Internet users have access to thousands of sources of current government information from around the world -- census data, Supreme Court decisions, world health statistics, company financial reports, weather forecasts, United Nations information, daily government press briefings and much more.

Census data

For global demography and population information, check this Australian resource http://coombs.anu.edu.au/ResFacilities/DemographyPage.html.

At http://grid2.cr.usgs.gov/globalpop/1-degree/, you can retrieve a population database depicting the worldwide distribution of population in a 1X1 latitude/longitude grid system. There are other global population databases at http://grid2.cr.usgs.gov/globalpop/1-degree/description.html and http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbnew.html. The latter is the U.S Census Bureau's International Data Base (IDB), a computerized source of demographic and socio-economic statistics for 227 countries and areas of the world.

Market data

World Competitiveness On-line (http://www.imd.ch/wcy_over.html) offers the World Competitiveness Yearbook published by International Institute for Management Development. The Yearbook aims to "capture in a single index the capacity of a country's economic structure to promote growth."

The Economist Group (United Kingdom) offers analysis and forecasts of the political, economic, and business environment in more than 180 countries. Access to the public areas of their web site at http://www.eiu.com/ requires a free registration. Their full-text publications, databases and other information are accessible by subscription only.

The European Union has a Market Access Sectoral and Trade Barriers Database at http://mkaccdb.eu.int.

Emerging Markets Companion (http://www.emgmkts.com/) is another window into the emerging economies of Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe.

The IPE mailing list is for the discussion of international political economy. Topics include NAFTA, regional trading blocs, trade regimes, international debt, long cycles, historical world systems, EEC, currency and market crises, democracy and governance in Latin and South America, Africa and Asia, commodity negotiations. To subscribe, send the command "Sub IPE" to: mailserv@csf.colorado.edu.

On Usenet, check out the biz and clari.biz hierarchies of newsgroups for leads (biz = business postings). Many ClariNews groups cover the business and financial world.

The International Affairs Network offers a comprehensive hypertext guide to the worldwide network-accessible resources available to scholars in the study of International Affairs at http://www.pitt.edu/~ian/ianres.html. The guide contains pointers within such areas as: International Political Economy, Foreign Policy, Economic Development, Technology, Science, and Environmental Policy, International Law, Area Studies Resources, and more.

There is another interesting international law resource on the World Wide Web, at http://www.law.ecel.uwa.edu.au/intlaw/.

The Transport Web (http://www.transportweb.com) is an information service for the international transportation industry.

Information Access Company (http://www.gale.com) provides several reference and full-text databases targeted at businesses. Coverage includes news and information on companies, industries, products, markets, and applied technologies, and on subjects such as computers, marketing, management, health, law, aerospace, popular culture, and scholarly research.

PROMPT (Overview of Markets and Technology) is IAC's largest database. It provides international coverage of companies, markets and technologies in all industries.

The IAC databases are available on commercial online services such as CDP Online, DataTimes, Dialog, Data-Star, ESA (European Space Agency), Financial Times Profile (England), and others. They are regularly published on CD-ROM. (http://www.iacnet.com)

Users of Data-Star, LEXIS-NEXIS, and Reuters have access to international political and economic coverage from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Split into five regional parts across over 140 countries, Summary of World Broadcasts makes up a daily political document, with coverage of legislation, policy, labor issues and foreign relations. The Weekly Economic Report covers topics such as energy, agriculture, and transportation. (BBC is also at http://www.bbc.co.uk.)

In the Business Database Plus at CompuServe, you can search in full-text stories from hundres of North American and international publications for industry and commerce.

The articles are about sales and marketing ideas, product news, industry trends and analyses, and provide company profiles in areas such as agriculture, manufacturing, retailing, telecommunications, and trade. This is a partial list of the database's magazines:

Agribusiness Worldwide, Air Cargo World, Beverage World, Beverage World Periscope Edition, Business Perspectives, CCI-Canmaking & Canning International, CD-ROM Librarian, Chain Store Age - General Merchandise Trends, Coal & Synfuels Technology, Communication World, Communications Daily, Communications International, Consultant, Cosmetic World News, Dairy Industries International, Direct Marketing, Financial Market Trends, Financial World, Food Engineering International, Forest Industries, Gas World, Graphic Arts Monthly, The Printing Industry, High Technology Business, International Trade Forum, Investment International, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Marketing Research, Medical World News, OECD Economic Outlook, The Oil and Gas Journal, Oilweek, Petroleum Economist, Plastics World, Purchasing World, Restaurant-Hotel Design International, Seafood International, Supermarket Business Magazine, Training: the Magazine of Human Resources Development, World Economic Outlook, World Oil.

Trade Show Central is a large searchable database of international trade shows (http://www.tscentral.com/).

The Business Dateline contains news from more than 150 regional business publications in the United States and Canada. If you have a niche market, chances are that the Predicast newsletters cover it (Dow Jones).

Market research reports from Frost & Sullivan are available through Data- Star. It produces over 250 market reports each year, in 20 industrial sectors. These reports cover results of face-to-face interviews with manufacturers, buyers and trade association executives, supplemented by a search and summary of secondary sources.

Ways of doing business

International Business Practices is full text of a U.S. Department of Commerce reference work that provides overviews of import regulations, free trade zones, foreign investment policy, intellectual property rights, tax laws and more in 117 countries. Check this resource out at http://WWW.UMSL.EDU/services/library/tjldoc.html

Brainwave for NewsNet has the Worldwide Business Practices Report. It offers monthly detailed information on such country-specific topics as business customs and protocol, negotiating tactics and bargaining tips, marketing strategies travel recommendations, local government regulations, social interaction and etiquette, safety and health issues.

Stock/financial information

The Syndicate (http://www.moneypages.com/syndicate/finance/foreign.html) is filled with links to stock exchanges and financial information around the world. Besides the usual United States links, you'll find links to countries like Austria, Canada, Costa Rica, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and countries in Latin America.

The Italian FINANCE AREA page (http://www.tsi.it/finanza/index.html) is another good source for global finance information. For links to banks around the world, check http://www.gwdg.de/~ifbg/bank_2.html.

The Handbook of International Economic Statistics 1997 provides basic worldwide statistics for comparing the economic performance of major countries and regions: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/hies97/. If you just want some fast comparative data, check http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004372.html.

The AINTACC-L mailing list (at listproc@scu.edu.au) hosts discussions about international accounting.

Legal resources

The Foreign and International Law Resources on the Internet page (at http://www.law.cornell.edu/library/forin.html) contains a long list of annotated pointers within international law, and topical resources.

International organizations

United Nations (UN) is at http://www.undp.org. This site carries UN DPI Press Releases, General Assembly, Security Council and ECOSOC resolutions, and more. ILO, the International Labor Organization, is at http://www.ilo.org.

United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) offers several searchable databases at http://apps.fao.org/lim500/agri_db.pl. Their FAOSTAT Database contains extensive agricultural data from many countries. Data is provided for production, trade, commodity supply and demand balances, population, land use, and fisheries.

For more, try the Official WEB Locator for the United Nations System of Organizations (at: http://www.unsystem.org/) is needed. Categories on their home page include: Alphabetical Index, Official Classification, What's New, Frequently Requested Information, Related Information and Other International Organizations.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is at http://www.who.ch, The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) at http://www.unicef.org, and UNESCO at http://www.unesco.org.

OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) is at http://www.oecd.org/. The organization is a forum permitting governments of 29 industrialized countries to study and formulate policies in economic and social spheres. It offers economic data on the members states, analysis of nonmember countries, and links to statistical resources on the net.

For more links to international organizations, point your browser at http://www.lawresearch.com/v2/Ciorgs.htm.