Finding data (especially historical data for time-series analysis) is now officially the bane of my existence. Every problem leads me to the need for data, but suitable data is proving very, very elusive! For example, an assignment I am working on now asks us – amongst other things – to look at; “Which countries appear to have benefited from international trade during the laste last few decades”.

Quite aside from issues regarding defining terms, ie. ‘benefits’ and ‘international trade’ (the later not so difficult as we can use the openness indicator which is adequate), the problem here is the “last few decades” part.

Firstly, Dictionary.com defines “few” as:

1. not many but more than one

Taking this, I might decide that three or four decades is a suitable time frame. Consequently, I would get a starting point for my analysis of 1970 to 1980. Now, from here, my original plan was to select two countries which around this time exhibited similar economic conditions, but which have since diverged. I could then look at the reasons for this divergence, looking specifically at the role international trade played in this.

The problem is that finding data from this time period is very difficult, the IMF has historical data, but you need to pay. Other than that, the only data from other sources is fairly recent (2000 onwards). Part of this is probably due to the fact that a lot of the countries in question probably lacked the institutions required to gather accurate data in these periods. Whatever the reason, it makes analysis difficult.

In this case, I will need to fall back to secondary sources such as journal articles which discuss similar issues. As for selecting the countries, it seems I will have to simply decide without regard for a formal or rational approach. To be honest, if someone gave me something like this in the ‘real’ world, I would hand the question back to them and ask them to think more and ask a more definite question.

EDIT: The full topic if you’re wondering is:

“Which countries appear to have benefited from international trade during the laste last few decades? What policies do these countries seem to have in common? Does their experience lend support to the infant industry argument or help to argue against it?”