CLIO-INFRA

CLIO INFRA is embedded within the European Commission Initiative Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH). DARIAH is listed on both the ESFRI Roadmap, as the Dutch Roadmap Scale Research Facilities (Dutch national roadmap for large-scale research facilities).

Project Description:
Within this NWO-funded project, the goal of the CLIO-INFRA project is: "On a global scale bringing, different and sometimes fragmented data sources together through alliances in an open access model disclosed with the use of a central portal".

The purpose of CLIO-INFRA is the systematic mapping of the available quantitative information on the development of the world economy in the last five hundred years. The goal is to provide a solid basis for the systematic study of the causes of global inequality. By using CLIO-INFRA as a foundation one is able to design and test crucial economic and social development theories. For example to answer the question why some countries are poor and others are rich. The databases will be made available via the internet (open access).

Operational level:
CLIO-INFRA shall interconnect a number of databases (hubs) consisting of data on global social, economic and institutional indicators over the past five centuries, with special attention for the past 200 years. These indicators make it possible to do research into the long term development of global inequality.

Some countries in the (recent) past have become rich, while others have remained poor. New theoretical insights into the economy - like the new institutional economics, new economic geography and new growth theory - and the emergence of global economic and social history, may mean that these global processes can and should be studied. The issue of global inequality can only be examined on the basis of global data on the patterns of economic performance and their causes. However a number of key indicators still lack these datasets. Yet, available data are not always based on state of the art information on the countries and regions.

CLIO-INFRA will fill this gap. Datasets will be created or improved on, for example, living standards, human capital, and cultural and political institutions. Economic and social historians from around the world will work together in thematic collaboratories, increasing their knowledge of the relevant indicators of economic performance and its causes to collect and share. The collected data will be standardized, harmonized and preserved for future use. New indicators will be developed to study inequality. The new data will be combined with data sets that the IISG has brought together such as on wages and prices and employment.

Tactical level:
The data sets are accessible via a central portal, which creates opportunities for the visualization of data. The long term goal of the project - as developed by the International Economic History Association - to the academic rules as to provide that international cooperation and to facilitate data exchange.

Strategic level:
CLIO-INFRA is embedded in the European Commission initiative by Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH). This was made possible by the embedment efforts made by DANS, which coordinates DARIAH. DARIAH is mentioned both on the ESFRI roadmap, as the Dutch national road map for large research facilities.

Role of DANS:
DANS will seek to establish and setup a long term storage solution by creating an database archive consisting out of aggregated data from Excel sheets.

Duration:
2011 - 2014

Contact DANS:
Arnoud Jippes T +31(0)6 239 995 20 E arnoud.jippes at dans.knaw.nl

Head petitioner:
IISG (Central Portal: hosting; Hub: historical prices and wages; Guilds; Historical Sample of Europe)

Co-petitioners:
DANS (Archiving: EASY)
Universiteit Utrecht (Hubs: quality of life; institutions; geography and environment; inequality)

Partners:
Universiteit van Debrecen (Hubs: human capital formation)
Universiteit Tübingen (Hubs: biological standards of living)
Universiteit Groningen (Hubs: historical national accounts)