Links

Data

• Australian Macro Database

• RBA Stats

• STLFed Data (FRED)

• Economic Growth Data

Miscellaneous

• NASA Open Source Projects

• The Australasian Macroeconomics Society, Inc.

• LAEF at UCSB

Python for Economics

I use Python for some of my research requiring computation. Since 2013 I have used Python for teaching. It is a stable, popular and open-source language, meaning that there is a lot of interest in the community of developers in improving it. It’s fast to develop and there’s a few nifty ways to pimp up your ride (e.g., Numba, Multiprocessing, OpenMPI, PyCUDA) if you feel the need for speed. Best of all, it’s free (as in zero dollars for the user) and it’s FREE (as in you can see the source code and build on it). I switched to Python from MATLAB for teaching because it allowed students to continue using it in their future work without any proprietary licensing issues. (This is especially pertinent for students from poor or developing-country backgrounds.) Finally, open-source coding is in the spirit of doing good (ethical) science where theory, data and empirical methods are supposed to be replicable and open to challenges.

Here are some useful libraries for the user wanting to get started quickly in Python for Economics:

• QuantEcon

• HARK project

• dolo

Some Useful C/C++ Libraries

Here are some free C/C++ libraries that have saved my life:

• GNU Scientific Library

• Open MPI

• GNU GLPK