Economic Policy Visualization
PI 0750 • Winter term 2024
Vienna University of Economics and Business
Lecturer
- Dr. Matthias Schnetzer
- https://mschnetzer.github.io
- mschnetz@wu.ac.at
- matschnetzer
Course details
- Oct 7, 2024 – Jan 13, 2025
- Mondays
- 10:00–12:00
- WU Campus
Contact
Please contact me via e-mail and I will usually respond within a few days. Note that we use the learning platform learn.wu.ac.at for all assignments in this course.
Summary
“A picture is worth a thousand words”. This course approaches contemporary issues of economic policy by analyzing innovative and iconic data visualizations. Based on selected illustrations, we discuss the underlying data, the theoretical background and policy implications with a focus on the nexus between inequality and economic growth. In a second step, we will assemble plots in class and study the basics of data visualization for policy design and evaluation. Students are required to recreate figures at home to improve their skills in coding. The main task is that students will design a comprehensive data visualization in R and draft a report around that figure in RMarkdown (or Quarto). Student will need to bring their laptop to class and prior knowledge of data handling in R is beneficial.
To sum up, students will gain:
- an overview of contemporary debates in economic policy based on recent empirical research
- an understanding of the basics of data visualization for policy design and evaluation
- knowledge how to enrich academic journal publications with informative figures