Research Guides: ECON 23a: Latin American Economic Development: Home

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Social Sciences Librarian

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Subjects: Anthropology, Asian Studies and Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies, First Year Writing (FYS and CSEM) , Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies, Myra Kraft Achievers Program (MKAP), Sociology, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Assoc. Dir. Academic Technology

Jason Bernard, MLS

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Subjects: Business, Economics

Get Help with Data Analysis and GIS at Brandeis Library

Brandeis Library has specialists who can help you learn about quantitative and qualitative data analysis in the social sciences, as well as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Check out the following guides to learn more!

Social Science Data Analysis
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Brandeis Library OneSearch

Course Textbook

The Economic Development of Latin America Since Independence by Luis Bértola, José Antonio Ocampo
Publication Date: 2012

Background Information: Countries and Region

CIA World Factbook
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) maintains this public guide to information on the "history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities."

Encyclopaedia Britannica Online
Find the encyclopedia entry for the country you are interested in, and get an overview of its history, people, and economy.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History
Call Number: eBook

Peer-reviewed and regularly updated, this research encyclopedia contains scholarly overviews of topics in Latin American history. From "Current Perspectives in the Precolonial Archaeology of Puerto Rico" to "A Feminist History of Violence against Women and the LGBTQIA+ Community in Chile, 1964–2018," use this encyclopedia to get an overview on important topics across a long span of human history in the Americas.

Statistics, Data and Country Reports

CEPALSTAT
CEPALSTAT is the gateway to all the statistical information of Latin America and the Caribbean countries collected, systematized and published by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
MOxLAD
Statistical series for more than forty economic and social indicators over the whole twentieth century, covering twenty countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is designed as a resource for economic and social historians, and is the only source that brings together publicly available data sources. Maintained by the Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.
DataBank | The World Bank
DataBank is an analysis and visualisation tool that contains collections of time series data on a variety of topics, including the World Development Indicators; health, nutrition, and population statistics; and education statistics. One of the World Bank Open Data tools.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Data
IMF makes a variety of databases and reports available on their website, including the World Economic Outlook (WEO) database, International Financial Statistics (IFS), and Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS). Don't know where to start? Check out the Guide to Data Sources to understand what kinds of information are located in each database.
OECD.Stat
The OECD's data warehouse, containing economic and social data from member countries as well as emerging economies. Build your own tables and extract data for analysis from across the OECD's many databases.

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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) is an intragovernmental organization whose members are committed to democratic government and the market economy, and seek to promote policies that will promote the economic and social well-being of people around the world.

Statista
Provides current statistical data and comparisons for a wide-ranging and continually updated array of topics, using both publicly accessible and proprietary sources. The chief types of data are related to marketing, demographics, and government information. Sources include market forecasts, dossiers, and industry reports.
Finaeon (formerly Global Financial Data) (GFD)

NOTE: Need to register for an account using your Brandeis.edu email and login on GFD/Finaeon in order to use the database. Collection of financial and economic data provided in ASCII or Excel format. Data includes: long-term historical indices on stock markets; Total Return data on stocks, bonds, and bills; interest rates; exchange rates; inflation rates; bond indices; commodity indices and prices; consumer price indices; gross domestic product; individual stocks; sector indices; treasury bill yields; wholesale price indices; and unemployment rates covering over 200 countries.

AmericasBarometer | LAPOP
AmericasBarometer, or Barómetro de las Américas, is a survey research project conducted by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) at Vanderbilt University in the USA.
World Inequality Database
A database on the historical evolution of the world distribution of income and wealth, both within countries and between countries. A product of the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics.

Scholarly Articles and More

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) (ProQuest)
Search millions of journal articles and selected books in this interdisciplinary database. Especially strong in anthropology, economics, political science and sociology. 1951-present.
ABI/INFORM Collection
Excellent coverage of international business and economics topics from journals, magazines, reports, and data sources.
PRISMA Database with HAPI Index
Provides 100+ full-text scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities for the interdisciplinary academic study of Latin America and the Caribbean. Articles are in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Includes materials which are indexed in the Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI). Coverage: 1966 - current
Politics Collection
Cross-search a collection of four databases covering the international literature in political science and public administration/policy: Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (WPSA), PAIS Index, PolicyFile, and ProQuest's Politics Database.
EconLit (EBSCO)
Extensive database of economic literature from 1886-present. Produced by the American Economic Association.
JSTOR
Archive of scholarly journals and ebooks spanning many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. Often does not have the last 1-3 years of a publication. Use Advanced Search to select specific subject areas.

Grey Literature

Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
ECLAC (also known as CEPAL, its acronym in Spanish and Portuguese) is a UN commission promoting economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Publications, data and statistics available on the website.

OECD
Books, papers, and statistics from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Published factbooks bring together essential statistics by theme; other statistical data can be manipulated as tables or charts within OECD Data Explorer and downloaded.

IMF eLibrary
Publications and data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Eldis
Provides free access to research on international development issues. Navigate by topic or country, or check out their Key Issues guides, for a good selection of reports and white papers from NGOs, with access to some scholarly sources as well.

Latin American Open Archives Portal (LAOAP)
A project of the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project (LARRP), in collaboration with the Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC), to improve access to social sciences grey literature produced in Latin America.

News

Latin American Newsstream (ProQuest)
Local, national, and regional news from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Provides newspapers in Spanish and Portuguese, such as El Universal (México); O Globo (Brasil); La Nación (Argentina); y El Mercurio (Chile).
International Newsstream (ProQuest)
Includes newspapers and newswires from Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. Covers 1980-present.
World Newspaper Archive: Latin American Newspapers (1805-1922)
Collection of historical Latin American newspapers, 1805-1922. Titles in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

Legal and Government Information

United Nations Law Collection (HeinOnline)
Contains United Nations legal publications including United Nations Treaty Series, the League of Nations Treaty Series, the United Nations Legislative Series and much more. Links to law review articles that cite a UN Treaty.
World Constitutions Illustrated (HeinOnline)
Includes a current constitution in its original language with an English translation for every country, links to commentaries from scholarly journals and other sources and more.