Monetary Policy Visualization
PI 0588 • Winter term 2026
Vienna University of Economics and Business
Lecturer
- Dr. Matthias Schnetzer
- https://mschnetzer.github.io
- mschnetz@wu.ac.at
- mschnetzer
Lecturer
- Patrick Mokre, PhD
- https://www.patrickmokre.com
- patrick.mokre@akwien.at
- patrickmokre
Course details
- Oct 5, 2026 – Jan 25, 2026
- Mondays
- 10:00–12:00
- TC.5.05
Summary
“A picture is worth a thousand words”. This course approaches contemporary issues of monetary policy by analyzing data and creating visualizations. We discuss theoretical backgrounds, empirical evidence and policy implications of monetary policy. In a second step, we assemble plots in class and study the basics of data visualization for policy design and evaluation. As a special feature, we will have a collaboration with the Austrian National Bank (OeNB). The bank will exclusively provide datasets for this class to create data visualizations. The main assignment is that students will design a comprehensive data visualization in R and draft a report around that figure in RMarkdown (or Quarto). Students 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 monetary 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