DOI: 10.3886/icpsr07628.v1
title: Direction of Trade
title: Version 1

description: These time series data supply detailed information on imports and exports for various countries and geographical areas of the world. Countries are grouped into three main categories: (1) Industrial Countries, (2) Developing Countries, and (3) USSR, Eastern Europe, etc. Along with data from reporting countries, estimates are provided by partner countries for nonreporting countries or for those that are slow to report. A subset of these data (Part 4), containing annual data from 1948 to 1978, is available as well.
description: Data for Parts 1, 4, 6, 7 and 8 are not weighted. The data do not contain a weight variable.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Original IMF File, 1948 Through April-May 1998. Includes COBOL Programs. 
 DS4: Annual Data: 1948-1978: Processed Data 
 DS6: Yearly Records Extracted from Original IMF Data File [additional data] 
 DS7: Quarterly Records Extracted from Original IMF Data File [additional data] 
 DS8: Monthly Records Extracted from Original IMF Data File [additional data]
description: Direction of Trade Series
description: record abstracts 
Due to an agreement between ICPSR and the IMF, this study is available only to users at ICPSR member institutions. Those who wish to use the study and are at non-member institutions should contact the IMF directly.
ICPSR's subscription with the the IMF for monthly updates of the DIRECTION OF TRADE (ICPSR 7628) series expired with the July 1998 tapes.
Part 1 data are stored in the packed zoned decimal format as distributed by the IMF. A supplemental COBOL processing program is available for use with this data file in the zipped package file (pkg07628-0001.zip). Datasets 2, 3 and 5 are no longer distributed. Datasets 6, 7 and 8, respectively, comprise the yearly, quarterly, and monthly records as extracted from the IMF data file.
The legacy documentation also documents the following IMF studies: DIRECTION OF TRADE (ICPSR S07628), INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL STATISTICS (ICPSR S07629), BALANCE OF PAYMENTS STATISTICS (ICPSR S08623), and GOVERNMENT FINANCE STATISTICS (ICPSR S08624). The original codebook is part of dataset 1 for all four studies. Dataset 4 was reprocessed and now includes the current suite of ICPSR distribution files. The legacy documentation now distributed with this collection was distributed as the codebook for dataset 4 in previous releases of this study.
Each time series in Part 1 can contain a variable number of logical records. The exact number of records in any time series in this collection is dependent upon the availability of annual, quarterly, and monthly data for trading partners. Approximately 61,000 time series are included in this collection.
The term "country," as used in this dataset, does not in all cases refer to a territorial entity that is a state as understood by international law and practice. The term also covers some territorial entities that are not states but for which statistical data are maintained and provided internationally on a separate and independent basis. Data are expressed in millions of United States dollars.
All exports are valued "free on board" (f.o.b.) and all imports "cost, insurance, and freight" (c.i.f.).
Three datasets have been added to the collection. The new datasets comprise the yearly, quarterly, and monthly records extracted from the IMF data file. The variable extraction was performed using SAS's PROC DATASOURCE. Data files generated by this extraction were subsequently processed using ICPSR's automated production routine. The new data files should be considered as minimally processed as no variable value checks or comparisons were performed. The layout and/or content of the new data files may not match those of the original data files. The codebooks for each new dataset document only the variables in that dataset's data file and should be used in conjunction with the legacy documentation.
description: Approximately 180 countries and geographical areas. Smallest Geographic Unit: Country