Program Overview

Program Overview

The Text Analysis and Spatial Data for Economists program is a comprehensive course designed to introduce students to the quantitative analysis of textual data and the use of spatial datasets.

Description

The course is divided into two parts:

• Part I: Spatial Data, which covers working with spatial data in R, geographical data, spatial operations on vector objects, and raster (satellite) data.
• Part II: Text Analysis, which includes working with text in Python, introduction to Spacy, web scraping and automating collection of online data (including social media data), basics of Natural Language Processing, Named Entity Recognition, text feature extraction, topic modeling, and text classification.

Objectives

The aim of this course is to equip students with the skills to analyze textual data and spatial datasets, covering both applications in recent empirical research and the implementation of text and spatial data analysis techniques through hands-on experiences using R and Python.

Teaching Mode

The course is taught in presence.

Learning Methods

The course is organized around topics, with students practicing theoretical concepts and programming languages through in-class exercises. Students are required to bring a laptop to all classes.

Examination Information

The final grade is composed of homework (40%) and a project due at the end of the semester (60%). The homework is valid only for the June and September sessions of the current academic year.

Education

This course is part of several master's programs, including:

• Master of Science in Computational Science (Lecture, Elective, 1st and 2nd year)
• Master of Science in Economics (Lecture, minor Data Science, 1st year; Lecture, Elective per 120, Elective, 2nd year)
• Master of Science in Financial Technology and Computing (Lecture, Elective, 1st and 2nd year)
• Master of Science in Management and Informatics (Lecture, Elective, 1st and 2nd year)

Additional Information

• Semester: Spring
• Academic Year: [Not specified]
• ECTS: 6.0
• Language: English

Program Details

The program is offered by the Universit‡ della Svizzera italiana, with the course being led by:

• D'Ambros M., Course Director
• Findahl J., Course Director

This program is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of text analysis and spatial data, preparing them for advanced research and applications in economics and related fields.