Economic Policy Visualization

Introduction

’Dr. Matthias Schnetzer‘

October 7, 2024

Course info


About this course

“A picture is worth a thousand words”

This course approaches contemporary issues of economic policy by analyzing innovative or iconic data visualizations. We analyse selected illustrations, discuss the underlying data, the theoretical background and policy implications. We will assemble plots in class and study the basics of data visualization.

You will gain:

  • an overview of contemporary debates in economic policy
  • a basic understanding of principles of data visualization
  • knowledge how to enrich academic publications with informative graphs

Who are you?

What do you expect of this course? Do you already have some coding experience in R?

Schedule

Date Time Room Content Assignment
Oct 07, 2024 10:00-12:00 TC.4.02 Introduction Circle Xmark
Oct 14, 2024 10.30-12.00 TC.4.18 Data Pen
Oct 21, 2024 10.30-12.00 TC.4.18 Visualization Circle Xmark
Oct 28, 2024 10:00-12:00 TC.3.07 Income · Geometries Circle Xmark
Nov 04, 2024 10:00-12:00 D2.0.392 Wealth · Scales Pen
Nov 11, 2024 10:00-12:00 D2.0.030 Mobility · Colors Circle Xmark
Nov 18, 2024 10:00-12:00 TC.5.12 Growth · Labels Pen
Nov 25, 2024 10:00-12:00 TC.5.18 Taxation · Maps Circle Xmark
Dec 02, 2024 10:00-12:00 TC.4.14 Policy · Themes Pen
Dec 09, 2024 10:00-12:00 TC.3.07 Student presentations Circle Xmark
Dec 16, 2024 10:00-12:00 TC.4.14 Student presentations Circle Xmark
Jan 13, 2025 10:00-12:00 TC.3.07 Round-up Circle Xmark

Assignments

Assignment 1 provides the setup of the R infrastructure that is required in this course. There are no points for this assignment.

Assignments 2 to 4 are recreations of examplary figures. These examples are related to figures that are discussed in class. Students should then try to reproduce the plots at home and improve their individual coding skills.

The raw data for the figures are available as CSV files. The charts should then be uploaded to the learning platform before 9 a.m. on the day of the deadline.

Assignments

Chart & Report

Chart presentation

  • Research question Which economic policy question do you want to answer with your chart?
  • Data
  • Chart
  • Conclusion What can we learn from the data visualization for economic policy?

Deadline: December 9, 2024

RMarkdown (or Quarto) Report

  • Title
  • Author
  • Introduction
  • Research question
  • Data
  • Result
  • Conclusion
  • Code

Deadline: January 31, 2025

Grading


Assignments: 30% (0-10 points for each visualization)

Chart presentation: 30% (0-20 points for the quality of the presentation, 0-10 for the preliminary chart)

Written report: 40% (0-40 points for the report and the final chart)

Visualizations by students

Feedback, cooperation and help

Let me know your feedback on the course anytime. If possible, I will try to incorporate your feedback immediately. At least, I will consider it for future courses.

As some of you might already have advanced coding skills in R, please support each other and collaborate. This does not mean that one person does all the coding and shares with all colleagues. Students should have an intrinsic motivation to improve their coding skills but cooperate to learn from each other.

There is a forum on the learning platform for exchange among students. Please also consult support platforms like Stack Overflow or take a look at the cheatsheets: