Data Collection

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/
  1. Real Gross Domestic Product, Billions of Chained 2012 Dollars, Seasonally Adjusted
  2. Real Gross Domestic Product per capita, Billions of Chained 2012 Dollars, Seasonally Adjusted
  3. Real Personal Consumption Expenditures, Billions of Chained 2012 Dollars, Seasonally Adjusted
  4. Real Gross Private Domestic Investment, Billions of Chained 2012 Dollars, Seasonally Adjusted
  5. Real Government Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment, Billions of Chained 2012 Dollars,
    Seasonally Adjusted
    REMARKS: “chained 2012 dollars” implies that the data you are obtaining is in real terms; seasonally
    adjusted means it accounts for seasonal changes (such as those that occur at Christmas time or the summer
    season); while the frequency is quarterly, all the above data are annualized, so be careful when interpreting
    individual data points.
    Part II: Data Processing
    Obtain all Figures directly from FRED (just download them), and then use Excel to obtain all statistics (i.e. to
    construct your table with all summary statistics); detained instructions are below. All tables and graphs need to be
    included in your write-up. Make sure to title your tables (Table 1: xxx; Figure 1: xxx, etc).
  6. Obtain a plot of real GDP and real GDP per capita in levels (i.e. just use the data as is); plot each
    individually (i.e. need 2 figures).
  7. Obtain the growth rate of real GDP and real GDP per capita and plot on the same diagram. To obtain
    the growth rate of each series, you want to obtain growth rate from “a year ago” not the growth rate from
    the previous quarter. HINT: go to “edit data” and select the new units: “% from a year ago”. (this is the
    data you should also download to obtain your summary statistics).
  8. Use the data on Real GDP, Real Consumption, Real Investment, and Real Government Expenditure to
    obtain 3 new series: a) Real Consumption to GDP ratio, b) Real Investment to GDP ratio, c) Real
    Government Expenditure to GDP ratio. Once you have these 3 series, plot all 3 on one diagram.
  9. Summary Statistics. You will need to use Excel to obtain summary statistics of some of the variables you
    have plotted (see the list in part a) below of the 5 variables that you need to work with).
    Econ 302 L02 Janko Z.
    Fall 2019
    2
    You will need to obtain 3 sets of statistics: 1st using the whole sample period, 2nd using only data up
    to/including the 2nd quarter of 2009, and 3rd using data from Quarter 3 of 2009 (i.e. since the end of the
    GREAT RECESSION).
    Once you obtain all summary statistics, you will need to create ONE table with all these statistics (you can
    create a table in excel and copy it into word or create a table in word directly). You must submit a single
    table with all of the statistics.
    a. Use the following series (variable) to obtain all summary statistics:
    i. Growth of Real GDP
    ii. Growth of Real GDP per capita
    iii. Real Consumption to GDP ratio
    iv. Real Investment to GDP ratio
    v. Real Government expenditure to GDP ratio
    b. Summary statistics to calculate: Average, standard deviation, min, and max. (present your statistics
    in this order).
    Remarks:
  10. You have 5 series for which you need to obtain 4 statistics: so that is 5×4 = 20 statistics. Since
    you need to do this for 3 different sample periods, you will need 60 statistics in total.
  11. At the end, this write-up should have 4 figures and 1 table.

Part III: Data Interpretation
Now that you have all the figures and summary statistics, you want to discuss what you observe in the Figures
and in the Table. The general rule in writing reports of this type is “if you have a figure it must be
discussed” and “if you have a table discuss the important patterns/changes/etc. not all individual stats
per say”.
You should be able to discuss how the data has changed over time, any striking changes/differences/etc. you
observe in the data (just do a visual inspection), what has been the performance since the end of the Great
Recession, etc. Note that you are not asked to conduct an analysis at this stage, as you do not have enough
information to do that. You can however discuss whether the economy is in an expansion or recession and what
general patterns you observe across recessions/expansions in the data you have plotted. Make sure to discuss all
your time series. Given the large # of statistics that you have in your table, you are not expected to discuss all the
statistics; instead be selective in using the statistics to tell a story/narrative.
Your write-up should be at max 500 words (not including figures and tables). It should be written in paragraph
form and be succinct. Avoid the use of bullets or lists. Use 11-12 font size and double space (so I have
somewhere to write comments if needed).
The final version of your write-up 1 should have 4 figures, 1 table, and a write up of 500 words or less. Present
at least 2 figures per page. This means that the write-up should be at most 5 pages (without a title page).

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