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).