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Persian Studies

This is a guide to important print and electronic sources in the field of Persian Studies. The focus is on material available in the UM Libraries' collections; however, there are additional internet sources included.

Persian Reference Sources

Country Profiles

Gives an overview of politics, economy, risk, business, industry, and data for each country.

  • Country Profile: Iran: Information presented by the EIU database.
  • Country Profile: Afghanistan: Information presented by the EIU database.
  • Country Profile: Iraq: Information presented by the EIU database.
  • Background Notes: From the U.S. Department of State facts about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, etc.
  • Coface: Country Risk and Economic Research: Presents country risk findings in three main sections: Country Risks, Sectors (contain ratings of industries), and Business Climate.
  • Country Studies: From the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, covers 102 countries and regions. Country Profiles are also available. Information is not updated on a regular basis.
  • Country Commercial Guides: From the United States Commercial Service - U.S. Department of Commerce, comprehensive look at a country's commercial environments, using economic, political and market analysis. Select "Country Commercial Guides" in the "Report Type" field.
  • Enterprise Surveys: Provides the world's most comprehensive firm-level data in emerging markets and developing economies for over 120,000 countries. Data are used to create indicators to benchmark quality of the business and investment climate across countries.
  • One World – Nations Online: A portal to the countries of the world - each country listed contains a country profile with facts and figures, geography, flag, statistics, maps, images, plus links to sources that provide more information such as: official government web sites, newspapers, tourism, travel advice, etc.
  • CIA World Factbook: From the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA, provides overviews on most countries of the world.
  • Country Data (PRS): Economic, financial, political and social data for over 140 countries, in most cases back to 1984. Note: You must turn off your pop-up blocker or permit pop-ups from this site in order to retrieve data.
  • Everything International: Provides links to a wide variety of international business, education, and research web sites.
  • Global Development Finance: From the World Bank provides direct access to more than 200 debt and financial flows indicators for the 129 countries that report public and publicly-guaranteed debt to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System. These data begin in 1970.
  • Human Development Report: From the United Nations an annual "In depth analysis and policy recommendations on a specific and important aspect of international development", includes statistical factsheets on many of the world's countries.

Country Report

Country Reports give a more in-depth look into each country, their background, polirics, economy, finance, and business, including up-to-date news reports.

  • Country Report: Iran: Information presented by the EIU database.
  • Country Report: Afghanistan: Information presented by the EIU database.
  • Country Report: Iraq: Information presented by the EIU database.
  • Doing Business Database: Provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 183 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level.
  • Everything International: Provides links to a wide variety of international business, education, and research web sites.
  • Human Development Report: From the United Nations an annual "In depth analysis and policy recommendations on a specific and important aspect of international development", includes statistical factsheets on many of the world's countries.
  • Kwintessential Country Profiles: Guide to international etiquette, culture, customs and protocol.
  • Market Research Library: From the U.S. Commercial Service, provides market research reports searchable by Industry, region or country. Note: You must create a free account in order to access these reports.
  • NationMaster.com: National statistics for just about any country in the world, presented in over 20 categories and 10 regions, including Asia and South East Asia.
  • OffStats – Official Statistics on the Web: Collection of "free statistics from official sources" from around the world. Can be searched by country, region and topic or Industry.
  • One World – Nations Online: A portal to the countries of the world - each country listed contains a country profile with facts and figures, geography, flag, statistics, maps, images, plus links to sources that provide more information such as: official government web sites, newspapers, tourism, travel advice, etc.
  • Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History: Over 900 articles from leading scholars with extensive bibliographies. Covers all time periods of human history and includes strong coverage of individual countries, regions, industries and economic concepts.
  • Passport [Note: This resource requires a campus login for access.]: Provides comparative statistics for 205 countries on economic indicators, health, foreign trade, environment, lifestyle, industrial and agricultural output, communications, and more. Also includes market size data for over 300 consumer products and services.
  • World Business Culture: Contains country profile information on a range of topics of immediate commercial relevance to anybody working in a global organisation, or studying international trade. The information has been compiled by some of the world's leading experts on global business culture.
  • World Development Indicators: From World Bank Group provides direct access to more than 550 development indicators, with time series for 200 countries and 18 country groups from 1960, where data are available. Time covered from 1960 - present in a wide range of areas, including social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators. Data export options in Excel or ASCII.
  • World Economic Outlook: From International Monetary Fund (IMF), time covered from 1993 to present. Coverage similar to World Development Indicators data, but more limited in scope and history, includes commodity price data and regional data that's not easily available in World Development Indicators.
  • World Investment Report: From United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Report focuses every year on the latest trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) around the world, at the regional and country levels and emerging measures to improve its contribution to development.

Country Data

These links take you to sites that host statistical information regarding countries.

  • Global Development Finance: From the World Bank provides direct access to more than 200 debt and financial flows indicators for the 129 countries that report public and publicly-guaranteed debt to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System. These data begin in 1970.
  • GlobalEdge: From Michigan State University's Broad College of Business. Contains a wealth of information on all countries, in-depth analysis of selected industries, teaching resources, etc. Free access, but registration will provide additional information.
  • Human Development Report: From the United Nations an annual "In depth analysis and policy recommendations on a specific and important aspect of international development", includes statistical factsheets on many of the world's countries.
  • International Comparison Program: From the World Bank, provides a collection of comparative price data and detailed expenditure values of countries gross domestic Products (GDP), and purchasing power parities (PPPs) estimates of the world's economies.
  • International Financial Statistics: From the International Monetary Fund. Covers all aspects of international and domestic finance, includes full-text statistical data from 1996-present.
  • Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH): From the World Bank. Provides external debt data and selected foreign assets from international creditor/market and national debtor sources.
  • NationMaster.com: National statistics for just about any country in the world, presented in over 20 categories and 10 regions, including Asia and South East Asia.
  • OffStats – Official Statistics on the Web: Collection of "free statistics from official sources" from around the world. Can be searched by country, region and topic or Industry.
  • One World – Nations Online: A portal to the countries of the world - each country listed contains a country profile with facts and figures, geography, flag, statistics, maps, images, plus links to sources that provide more information such as: official government web sites, newspapers, tourism, travel advice, etc.
  • Quarterly External Debt Statistics (QEDS/SDDS/GDDS): Provides detailed external debt data that are published individually by countries that subscribe to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) as well as GDDS participating countries that are in a position to produce the external debt data prescribed by the SDDS.

For more, explore these databases.