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Latin American Studies: Historical and Contemporary Business Research

An introductory guide to doing research in Latin American studies in the UCSD Library

Related Research Guides

Click on the Country Information and Reports tab for a list of resources providing background, introductory, and even advanced country information and reports.  Many of these resources are taken from the Statistics/Data Tab of the UCSD Library International Government Information Research Guide which points to resources to find great background information and statistics on countries around the world. Using such resources is a helpful place to start research on any Latin American country.

The Business Research Guide is also an excellent starting place.

Approaches to searching the UCSD Online Catalog (ROGER)

Keyword Searching for these phrases/keywords may be productive:

  • city directories city/region/country [i.e. city directories Tijuana OR city directories Mexico]
  • companies directories country/region/city [i.e. company directories Argentina]
  • industry/commodity history country/region/city [i.e. guano history Peru]
  • Annual reports of the world's central banks add country if desire

The following authors have produced useful serials and reports:

  • Caribbean Basin Business Information Center (U.S.)
  • Latin America/Caribbean Business Development Center (U.S.)

Databases for Business Research (Including Company and Industry Profiles)

Business Insights: Global   This link opens in a new window

BI: Global is a great first-stop for business and management information. It includes information on companies and industries from business and trade journals, academic journals, industry reports, newspapers, newsletters, and classic business reference sources. Search on a company name. In the search results, click on individual companies to open well-organized company profiles.

Business News Americas: BNamericas 

Premium news, reports, and statistics on Latin American industries and companies, covering telecommunications, information technology, electric power, oil and gas, petrochemicals, mining, metals, banking, information technology, infrastructure, privatization, water and waste, and insurance sectors.

EMIS Intelligence (formerly ISI Emerging Markets)  

Provides economic studies, company & industry reports, country risk, statistics and political news on emerging market countries. Covers public & private companies & global industry reports. Includes interactive data analysis tools & news alerts. Excellent China coverage.

Factiva contains MANY newspapers, including financial.  To see if it provides access to a particular publication, click on the source downward arrow and search by title.  For example, you will find El Financiero here.

Global Financial Database  

Financial and economic data covering over 150 countries and over 6,500 historical and current data series. Bonds, T-bills, unemployment, GDP, commodity prices, exchange rates, and more, some dating back to 1900. Note: To access, use the “Login Anonymously” option and choose GFDatabase in the left nav bar.

Global Insight  

Global Insight provides access to the 4 Basic Economics Databases covering U.S. economic, financial, and demographic statistics. Concepts available are U.S. trade, population, production, income, housing, employment, and finance. Data series are available at daily, weekly, and monthly frequencies with history from 1946. Although licensed users can search more than 100 Global Insight databases, data downloads are limited to BASIC, BASIC/D, BASIC/FX, and BASIC/W.

  • Basic Economics - contains approximately 6,000 monthly, quarterly, and annual time series that date back to 1946 when available.
  • Weekly - contains approximately 500 weekly time series that date as far back as 1959 where applicable. Whenever possible, monthly counterparts are available in the Economics database.
  • Daily
  • FX - the Daily and FX contain about 700 financial variables, commodity prices, interest rates and foreign exchange rates from various agencies.

Latin America Data Base (LADB)  

Searchable database of weekly newsletters covering Latin American political and economic affairs, 1986-present. Current titles are NotiSur (South America), SourceMex (Mexico), NotiCen (Central America).

 LatinNews 

Online archive and feed of the Latin American Newsletters (London) family of political economic news and analysis publications - also known as Latin American Intelligence Service. Earliest coverage reaches back to 1967.

more...

Mergent Online  

Provides detailed information about U.S. and International public companies. Content includes: links to SEC EDGAR filings, current and archived company profiles and annual reports, historical financial and stock price data, equity research reports, and industry reports.

Print Sets Statistical Abstracts for Latin America

 

Latin American marketing data and statistics 

Call Number: Geisel Reference Floor2 West HA751 .L38

Publication Date: London : Euromonitor International, 2003

Anuario estadístico de América Latina = Statistical yearbook for Latin America 

Call Number: Geisel Floor 6 HA755 .A68

Publication Date: Santiago, Chile : United Nations, Economic Commission for Latin America, 1973-1984

Anuario estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe = Statistical yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean 

Call Number: Geisel Reference Floor 2 West and Floor 6 HA755 .A68

Publication Date: [Santiago, Chile] : Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 1986-

Issues since 1998 available online at: http://www.cepal.org/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/deype/agrupadores_xml/aes250.xml&xsl=/agrupadores_xml/agrupa_listado.xsl

Search for "Statistical abstract of Latin America" as a keyword in UC Library Search to find various publications by the Committee on Latin American Studies/Latin American Studies Center at UCLA

Statistical abstract of Latin America for .. by prepared by Committee on Latin American Studies, UCLA 

Call Number: Most Recent: Geisel Reference Floor2 West Earlier Issues 6th Floor HA935 .S8

Publication Date: Los Angeles : The University, 1956-2002

Libraries hold vols. 1-38 (1955-2002)

Centroamérica en cifras, 1980-2005 

Call Number: Geisel Reference Floor 2 West HC141 .C38474 2006

Publication Date: San José, Costa Rica : Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, 2005 [i.e. 2006]

Specialized Latin American Resources With Business Information

Business News Americas = BNamericas Licensed by UCSD 

Industry and company news and reports covering Industry and company news and reports covering technology, telecom, electric power, oil and gas, mining, infrastructure, banking, insurance, water, and privatization sectors across Latin America. Enter your @ucsd.edu domain email to initiate access and establish your ongoing platform customization. (Check spam folder/filter for initial "magic link" message.) Restricted to UCSD email addresses.

Latinnews Licensed by UCSD 

AKA Latin American Intelligence Service, 1967-). Online archive and feed of the complete Latin American Newsletters (London) family of political and economic news and analysis publications. Includes focused, special reports, such as commodity reports, regional reports, and security and strategic reviews.

Newspapers and Periodicals

The News Sources on Latin America tab lists many general and regionally/subject specific news sources which are useful for historical and contemporary business research. 

In addition, there are many important business-specific resources to be aware of.  These include:

Business Week 

Call Number: Offsite SRLF HF 5001.B89 (1929-1989)

Publication Date: 1929-

UCSD Library provides access 1929-present

Print: Offsite SRLF HF 5001.B89 (1929-1989)
Electronic Since 1990

Fortune 

Call Number: Offsite SRLF HF5001.F72 (1930-1989); Journals, Geisel 1 E (1990-); Current Cournals, Geisel 2 W HF5001.F7

Publication Date: 1930-

UCSD Library provides access 1930-present

Print: Offsite SRLF HF5001.F72 (1930-1989); Journals, Geisel 1 E (1990-); Current Cournals, Geisel 2 W HF5001.F

Harvard Business Review (1922-present) 

The Wall Street Journal