The database of the Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme, a unit of the United Nations Center for Human Settlement (Habitat) was a source for some of the material in these reports.

CNN: New toilets, new lives

In an article Michel and Lieberman Aiden published in the January 14 2011 issue of Science, one of the top research journals, they used a database of 4% of all the books ever printed between 1800 and 2000 to show how grammar, censorship practices, and the rate at which new technologies are adopted over time.

FORBES: Wanna Be Famous? Science Says Get There By Age 30

Fortunately, recently, professors Nick Bloom, Toby Kretschmer, and John van Reenen (from Stanford, the University of Munich, and the London School of Economics) conducted an extensive study examining the effect of family-friendly practices on hard variables such as firm sales per employee and return on capital employed, using a large database of firms from the US, the UK, Germany, and France.

FORBES: Are Family-Friendly Workplace Practices Worth Their Money? New Evidence