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This study constructs a comprehensive, internationally comparative set of foreign trade data for the period 1857–1875. The dataset is constructed using information at the commodity group-level and contains import and export values for the UK, France, the Zollverein, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria-Hungary, and the United States, itemised by trade partner. The study tackles three basic problems related to the heterogeneity in national statistics of the period: different definitions of aggregates, inadequate ‘official’ pricing, and the ‘proximity bias’, i.e. the misleading practice of crediting imports to bordering countries from where they physically entered, but where they did not originate. After passing successfully a consistency test, the resulting dataset contains harmonised and country of origin-corrected bilateral trade values for 7 central importers, 10 points in time, and 21 commodity groups, along with ad valorem tariff rates for all commodity groups and countries. They offer new detailed insights into the composition and evolution of trade and tariffs in the third quarter of the 19th century. Furthermore, a basic implementation of the gravity equation shows that as a consequence of the proximity bias estimates using uncorrected data are to be taken with care, especially when assessing border effects and the impact of policy variables.

The title for this paper was selected advisedly, for it will serve to correct a popular misconception about the part the Chemical Industries Association plays in the collection and dissemination of statistics about the chemical industry.

The origins of statistical information relating to the textile industry as to statistics generally are to be found mainly in the needs of Governments which, especially in the field of export and import trade, have collected information from the earliest days and for which, in the case of the United Kingdom, systematic trade statistics tabulated by goods and countries date from 1696.

This paper aims to examine the accuracy of the trade statistics between the People’s Republic of China and 20 Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

This paper contrasts the mirror trade statistics between China and 20 Latin American countries during 2009-2014, after adding to the Chinese side the trade figures corresponding to Hong Kong and adjusting for some valuation issues. Using the resulting panel data, the paper then explores some of the possible explanatory variables, in the case of Latin America, which can account for the significant trade misinvoicing that is found among most of the countries involved.

Trade misinvoicing, be that from the part of China or of its partners, varies substantially across Latin America. It is quite large in the case of some countries such as Bolivia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Paraguay, and, on the opposite side, relatively small in the case of other countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala and Venezuela. It is found that, from a Latin American perspective, trade misinvoicing is positively related to the countries’ lack of statistical capacity and their degree of financial openness.

This is the first empirical paper that examines the mirror trade statistics between China and Latin American.

As part of this one‐day conference we have prepared an exhibition of some of the more important sources giving statistical and other data on the Common Market. A Guide to sources of statistics in Common Market countries has been prepared by the Economics Library of British Nylon Spinners Ltd in collaboration with members of the Aslib Economics Group.

Many of the sources constituting the management literature that were dealt with in the previous chapter will also provide business information. However, there are other sources that can be used, particularly for company and industry information.

International political economy is an emerging yet specialized field that combines political analysis with the study of markets, trade, and development. With the global economy having an interdependent effect on politics, environment, and society, and with several major economic events of the last 20 years, the authors perceived a need to provide a guide to the sources in this field. This paper seeks to address this issue.

The authors identified resources using WorldCat and standard reference sources, such as American Library Association's Guide to Reference Books; the annual American Libraries’ “Outstanding Reference Sources” articles; American Reference Books Annual (ARBA) volumes; Booklist's Editor's Choices articles; and Choice's “Outstanding Academic Titles”. Sources were selected from 2000 to the present, concomitant with development of the global economy in the twenty‐first century.

This guide contains reference works and internet resources that include or provide access to primary source documentation and statistical studies and tables, as well as handbooks, guides, encyclopedias and dictionaries that place the field in context.

Given the interdisciplinary nature of the field, focus was placed on sources that emphasize the core focus of international political economy. Related fields of study, including globalization, development, environmentalism and social movements, were largely excluded.

The authors found no other comprehensive bibliographies containing reference, primary and statistical sources that cover the field in its breadth during this time period.

It is flattering that a statistician should be asked to address a gathering of librarians. In Five Orange Pips Sherlock Holmes remarks that a man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture he is likely to use and the rest he can put away in the lumber room of his library where he can get it if he wants it. I have no view about Conan Doyle's definition of a library as a lumber room, but certainly I find the little brain attics of librarians well stocked with one of the two branches of epistemology, as Dr Johnson defined them: ‘Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information about it’. I pay tribute to the ability of librarians to find information about statistics, despite what must occasionally seem to them the perverse ingenuity with which statisticians make the task difficult. It is easy enough to find United Kingdom statistics. There are an infinity of them—in the Digests of Statistics, of Financial Statistics, of Regional Statistics, and so on. The trouble is that those who inquire of you usually want a particular statistic—although the phrase ‘any figures will do’ is one which is not unfamiliar to me. To find in the forest of United Kingdom figures the particular sapling which a researcher is seeking is sometimes far from easy. My experience is that the librarians know their way about the lumber at least as well as we statisticians do.

The purpose of this paper is to study reducing the variation of environmental footprint estimates based on multiregional input–output (MRIO) databases. Footprint estimates from various MRIO databases sometimes vary significantly. As a result, conclusions about the absolute levels or trends of a footprint may be inconsistent. The sources of these variations are attributable to three phases in the footprint calculations: differences in data preparation, MRIO database construction and footprint calculation.

This paper provides a literature overview and a breakdown of the computation of footprints based on MRIO database. Based on these insights, strategies that lead to lower variation in footprint estimates are formulated.

Convergence of footprint estimates require enhanced cooperation amongst academics, among statisticians and between academics and statisticians.

Reducing the variation in footprint estimates is a major challenge. This paper aims to contribute to this convergence in three ways. First, this paper provides the first overview of footprint work at statistical offices, government agencies and international organisations. These are the front-runners that may play a role in cooperating with academics (and other statistical offices) to resolve some of the issues. Second, a detailed analysis of the sources of the variation in estimates is provided. These problems are illustrated using examples from the various MRIO databases and the data of Statistics Netherlands. Third, strategies are discussed that might help reduce variation between footprint estimates.

In this paper I propose first of all to analyse the type of information required by management; secondly to give some indication of the availability of this information, both in the United Kingdom and overseas (suggesting at the same time how this information can sometimes be supplemented by the company's own effort); and finally to say something about the building up, storage and dissemination of commercial information based largely on our own practice.