
Professional Data Science Course for Economists in Python
Central banks, universities and other research institutions spend massive amounts of resources every year on software licences. With the development of open-source software (Python, Julia, R etc) there is an enormous opportunity to save and use these resources more efficiently to develop human capital and improve the quality/quantity of central bank policy analysis, forecasting and policy-relevant research.
Important priority of the Better Policy Project is to provide cost-effective training to support the development of the FPAS and efficient-transparent monetary policy frameworks.
Python is a multi-paradigm programming language. It is also a powerful tool for economists and researchers in conducting data collection, statistical analysis, economic research, web scraping and visualization.
So that it can be available to all central banks it is important to develop cost-effective on-line training.
Unique 5-day intensive on-line course that guides participants from the basics of Python to becoming skilled users. Unlike other courses which only provide general knowledge of Python, this course is result-oriented and designed for central bank economists and research assistants. By the end of the course participants will have a powerful framework that they can use for database management, visualization, and reporting.
The course is designed for economists and researchers to help them organise and report data in a fast, effective, and beautiful way. Participants will learn how to think about data and how to present it to economists and policymakers.
Requirements:
-
Python 3.9,
-
Anaconda,
-
MiKTeX.
What will you learn?
-
Getting started. Free software in economic research.
-
Basics and advantages of Python.
-
Python libraries and their functions.
-
Data structures in Python.
-
Uploading and organizing data.
-
Data manipulation and database management.
-
Data visualization.
-
Statistical analysis tools and filters.
-
Web scraping, data extraction and automation.
-
Dynamic web applications/web reports.
-
Reporting: Creation of final PDF reports in MiKTex.
-
Projects:
-
Project 1. Estimation of consumption functions in the US.
-
Project 2. Natural language processing. Topic analysis.
-
The outcomes from the course:
-
A full package of code designed to upload, organize, plot and report data. The course is based on United States data. See examples.
-
Reporting technology.
-
Certificate of completion.
-
Further assistance (subject to discussion).

Try Yourself!
Here you can download useful Jupyter notebook codes and run them yourself. We will update this folder and add new codes over time.
If you will have questions and (or) suggestions, feel free to contact us here or send an email:
douglaslaxton@thebetterpolicyproject.org
Dates
November 7 - November 11,
2022
13:00 - 15:00 Lisbon Time
December 19 - December 23,
2022
13:00 - 15:00 Lisbon Time
The course will be conducted online via Zoom. It will last 5 days. Participants will have access to 2 hours of training each day.
People who cannot attend due to time difference, will have access to video recordings of the course and will have special sessions scheduled with instructors for Q & A.
Seats are limited!