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Interpreting Economic Data
Interpreting Economic Data
Learn how to consult the online databases of major international economic organizations to extract information that can help you interpret the economic and financial landscape and understand certain historical and current events.
Course description
The course aims to provide participants with practical tools for consulting the main economic databases and for using the software R, with the aim of acquiring a real ability to read and interpret macroeconomic scenarios.
The first part of the course will introduce the main economic databases available online on the national and international institutions websites: FRED, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, EUROSTAT, ECB, Yahoo Finance.
The second part of the course will focus on showing how to download data and create graphs for interpreting historical events with the aid of case studies. Specifically, the open-source software R will be used to show practical examples of the full process, from connecting into databases to generating the required graphs for understanding the case studies.
Total workload of the course: 25 hours
This course was translated from "Interrogare i dati economici" and human-reviewed by an ita-eng translator and the professor of the course.
This MOOC was produced as part of the Edvance project – Digital Education Hub per la Cultura Digitale Avanzata. The project is funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU, Component 1, Investment 3.4 “Didattica e competenze universitarie avanzate".
Intended Learning Outcomes
Upon completion, the students of this course will be able to:
- Identify the most relevant sources of macroeconomic data and independently extract data for economic scenario analysis
- Use the open-source software R to access, process and visualise macroeconomic data
- Analyse historical events using data and graphs
- Examine and critically discuss current affairs by selecting appropriate sources and data and by carrying out the necessary analyses
Prerequisites
Have a basic understanding of macroeconomic variables such as: GDP, inflation, interest rates, employment and unemployment, wages, exchange rates, and the trade balance.
Activities
This course has:
- Video lectures
- Individual and interactive activities
- Quizzes
- Self-study materials
Section outline
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Economics seeks to identify patterns in the movements of key macro- and microeconomic variables, and data analysis is a key component of this process. It is therefore essential to know where to find the data and how to analyze it. In this Week's lesson, we will explore the International Monetary Fund’s database, which allows users to view macroeconomic data directly on its website.
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Germany, France, Italy, and Spain are the four countries that account for the largest share of GDP. Which of these countries has grown the most since the 2020 pandemic crisis? How would the picture change if we were to look back to the 2008 crisis instead?
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Two crises that seem almost identical. In reality, they have very different underlying causes: the first stems from a speculative bubble created by investments in assets linked to new information technologies, while the second stems from a bubble that formed in the real estate market.
Using financial data, we will examine the characteristics of these two crises in detail. -
Let’s look at the trend in the spread between the interest rate Italy pays on its 10-year debt and the rate paid on Germany’s debt with the same maturity. This spread reflects the ups and downs of the Italian economy relative to the German benchmark.
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A historical comparison with what happened in 1992, when the Italian Lira was forced to leave the European Monetary System.
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Market reactions to the new U.S. tariffs on April 2, 2025: How are financial markets responding? We will examine the trends in the euro/dollar exchange rate, the interest rate on U.S. Treasury bonds, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index.
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In 1919, following the Great War, a peace treaty was signed in Versailles, which would lay the groundwork for a long period of recession that would ultimately lead to World War II. Keynes highlighted the treaty’s flaws in his book “The Economic Consequences of the Peace”.
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As early as World War II, the Allied nations laid the groundwork for a new global financial order by establishing the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. These new international institutions were a positive response to the mistakes made at the end of World War I, 25 years earlier.
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When energy markets face a crisis, the world faces a crisis as well. We have three notable examples in the three energy shocks that affected the entire world in the 1970s and 1980s and in the early 2000s. The first two shocks were related to oil, while the third also—and perhaps primarily—concerned natural gas. The first two shocks originated in the Middle East (OPEC and Iran), while the latest is related to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
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Video transcripts Folder
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Assessment
Your final grade for the course will be based on the results of your answers to the assessed quizzes. You have an unlimited number of attempts at each quiz, but you must wait 15 minutes before you can try again. You will have successfully completed the course if you score 60% (or higher) in each one of the assessed quizzes. The maximum score possible for each quiz is given at the beginning of the quiz. You can view your score in the quiz on your last attempt or on the 'Grades' page.
Certificate
You can achieve a certificate in the form of an Open Badge for this course, if you reach at least 60% of the total score in each one of the assessed quizzes and fill in the final survey.
Once you have completed the required tasks, you will be able to access ‘Get the Open Badge’ and start issuing the badge. Instructions on how to access the badge will be sent to your e-mail address.
The Badge does not confer any academic credit, grade or degree.
Information about fees and access to materials
The course is delivered in online mode and is available free of charge.
Course faculty
Francesco Menoncin
Teacher
Francesco Menoncin is a full professor of Economic Policy at the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Brescia, where he teaches in the master's degree program “Finance and Risk Management.” He has also taught courses for doctoral and master's programs at the universities of Pisa, Genoa, Milan, and at the EM-Lyon business school in France.
His research work focuses on market finance, with particular reference to the study of the optimal portfolio for both financial and actuarial risk management. In particular, he has published numerous articles on the financial management of pension funds to address longevity risk. Another research interest concerns the analysis and description of the phenomenon of tax evasion, with the use of dynamic optimization models.
Contact details
If you have any enquiries about the courses or if you need technical assistance please contact pok@polimi.it. For further information, see FAQ page.