World Development Indicators [With CDROM]

By World Bank Group and World Bank

Book Overview

2010

• Format: Unknown Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0821382659
• ISBN13: 9780821382653
• Release Date: July 2010
• Publisher: World Bank Publications
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 2.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 8.5" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

Almost Perfect

In 1997, with little fanfare, the World Bank replaced the statistical appendix of its venerable annual publication, World Development Report, as well as the Bank's World Tables and Social Indicators of Development, with a new publication, the World Development Indicators (WDI). The WDI became "...the World Bank's principal statistical survey of world development." (WDI 1997, p. vii) It is a notable improvement over the discontinued publications, eliminating most but not all of weaknesses that previously frustrated both the regular and casual user. Most importantly, the WDI provides more data (947 data sets in eighty-three tables compared to the 226 data sets in the eighteen tables in the 1996 World Development Report) on more countries. Detailed coverage is provided for 152 countries with more limited data on an additional 56 countries or other political entities. In addition to data gathered by the World Bank and associated organizations, the WDI includes developmental data from a wide variety of international, governmental, non-governmental, and private organizations. Extended time series for all of the data in the paper WDI are available on the associated WDI CD-ROM. Each of the six sections in the WDI begins with a three to thirteen page introduction before presenting the relevant data sets. After the wide ranging World View chapter (6 tables and 76 data sets); the WDI looks at population, poverty, education and health in People, the second chapter (14 tables and 199 data sets). Agriculture, pollution, biodiversity, and environmental sustainability data are given in the Environment chapter (15 tables and 161 data sets). The remaining three chapters focus on more traditional measures of economic development. The chapter entitled Economy contains data on output, international trade, government spending and finance, as well as external debt (17 tables and 189 data sets). This is followed by the States and Markets chapter which contains data on a wide range of issues including stock market and other investments, tax policies, defense spending, transport, power and communications, and science (12 tables and 138 data sets). The sixth and final chapter, Global Links, contains data on trade blocs and tariffs, global financial flows, international labor migration, and foreign aid (14 tables and 184 data sets). The tables follow a cross sectional format to facilitate inter-country comparisons and many show data from two or more years so that trends can be observed. The most useful innovation in the WDI is its treatment of definitions and sources. In its predecessor publications, each table's definitions and sources were generally obscure, laconic and hidden in the back of the book. A long distance - mentally if not physically - from the data. In the WDI, each of the eighty-three tables is immediately followed by a detailed discussion of the meaning, the strengths and, most importantly, the weaknesses of the data. Also included is the source of e