Initial Publication Date: April 12, 2016
What should the student get out of this module?
After completing this module, a student should be able to:
- Understand the importance of graphing data in economics.
- Understand the steps that are taken to create scatter plots and time series plots are from a given set of data.
- Understand how to interpret a relationship between two economic variables that are plotted on a graph.
- Recognize where graphing of data is applied in microeconomics and macroeconomics.
What we don't include on this page
This module does not provide detail on the difference between independent variables and dependent variables and the associated graphing conventions. We also did not relate the idea of extending graphical analysis of data to empirical estimation of functions describing the underlying relationship.
Why is it difficult for students?
Understanding and using graphs can be difficult for students for several reasons.
- Students may be uncomfortable with the basic ideas associated with graphing data such as labeling axes with units of measure and ranges of values that are appropriate for a given set of data. Students may also struggle to know which variable should be measured on the vertical axis and which variable should be measured on the horizontal axis.