Data Science in International Economics Research

DSIER [/dɪˈzaɪər/]

Authors

Julian Hinz

Irene Iodice

Fields in Kazakhstan.

Summary

This course provides a snapshot of state-of-the-art research in the field of international economics that makes use of big, often unconventional datasets, and novel methods.

Topics include issues in development studies (e.g. using satellite imagery), international trade and migration (large semi-structured administrative data and cellphone trace data) and international finance (data from social networks).

The course combines a weekly lecture that introduces one or more research projects, their data and methods, as well as an application session in which students are tasked with handling similar datasets and methods.

Coursework includes short assignments along the semester, as well as a final project.

Topics

  1. Getting started: Course outlook and good research practice

  2. The toolkit: R and the shell

  3. New sources of economic data: Web scraping and APIs

  4. Social media data

  5. Event and sensor data

  6. Networks

  7. Spatial data

  8. Satellite imagery

  9. Large structured data

  10. Text as data

  11. OCR: Digitized data

Schedule

The course takes place on Wednesdays from 10 – 12h and 16 – 18h usually in person. Classes will also be streamed at jhi.nz/dsier.

Date Time Topic Teacher Location
April 5 10 – 12 Course outlook Irene & Julian T2-234
16 – 18 Good research practice Julian T2-234
April 19 10 – 12 R and the shell Julian T2-234
16 – 18 Make and git Julian T2-234
April 26 10 – 12 Web scraping and APIs Irene T2-234
16 – 18 Databases Irene T2-234
May 3 10 – 12 Social media data Julian T2-234
16 – 18 Julian T2-234
May 10 10 – 12 Event and sensor data Irene T2-234
16 – 18 Irene T2-234
May 17 10 – 12 Networks Irene T2-234
16 – 18 Irene T2-234
May 24 10 – 12 Spatial data Julian T2-234
16 – 18 Julian T2-234
May 31 10 – 12 Satellite imagery Julian T2-234
16 – 18 Julian T2-234
June 7 10 – 12 Large structured data Irene T2-234
16 – 18 Irene T2-234
June 14 10 – 12 Text as data Irene T2-234
16 – 18 Irene T2-234
June 21 10 – 12 Digitized data Julian T2-234
16 – 18 Irene T2-234
June 28 10 – 12
16 – 18 Presentation of projects Irene & Julian jhi.nz/dsier
July 5 10 – 12
16 – 18 Presentation of projects Irene & Julian jhi.nz/dsier

References and additional resources

The course material, both for the lectures and coding examples, is often inspired by fantastic work from other educators and researchers. Here are some references that sometimes go beyond what we do in class:

Questions?

Any general questions? Post them in the dedicated #frequently-asked-questions Slack Channel in case you think this is a question of general interest. Of course, you can also contact us privately