Big Data in International Macroeconomics and Finance

The “big data” revolution is shaping business and policymaking around the globe and will also have profound effects on economic research. Large-scale datasets by governments and the private sector as well as rapid advances in computing power offer many new opportunities to analyze economic activity. At the same time, this strand of research remains in its infancy. How can economists take full advantage of “big data”? What are the most promising methods and applications?

This summer school invites leading researchers that use big data and machine learning methods in macroeconomics and finance and has two main aims. First, to teach participants state of the art methods in big data analysis and machine learning and, second, to present how these methods can be applied to address big and relevant economic questions.

In particular, the lecturers will teach:

• How newest advances in “Nowcasting” help to measure inflation and other macroeconomic variables in real time
• How text analysis can help to explain monetary policy and its macroeconomic effects
• How facebook data and social network analysis can help to understand housing markets and borrowing behavior by households
• How geospatial data can be used to measure GDP growth and economic activity worldwide
• How Twitter data can be used to study international trade flows

• Theresa Kuchler
• Johannes Stroebel
• Adam Storeygard
• Michele Modugno
• Stephen Hansen