Community corner: Platypus Economics
Economics. Explained. Clearly.
That’s the mission of Platypus Economics, and it delivers exactly that.
Founded by Justin Wolfers—a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, former New York Times columnist, and frequent voice on CNN and the BBC—Platypus Economics teaches the world economics. Through a multiplatform initiative, Wolfers breaks down complex economic concepts to help people make better decisions in their finances, relationships, and communities.
Platypus Economics features series "Diving In" for intuitive economic explainers, "Off the Clock: Unwinding the Week’s Economic News" for current events, "The Professor Is In" for responses to audience questions, and much more. Watch the YouTube channel for an entertaining show, listen to the podcast during your commute, or get the newsletter for a closer read.
For the Stata community, the standout feature is the companion Stata worksheets, allowing you to replicate his analysis yourself. By pulling data directly from sources like the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), he uses intuitive visualizations, tables, and analyses that mix official and community-contributed commands, letting you see patterns emerge in your own hands.
For example, Worksheet 09 asks this pressing question: Is your paycheck keeping up with prices? It walks you through pulling the latest inflation and wage numbers directly from the BLS API the day they drop using the getbls command. From there, you'll use tools like reshape and date-and-time functions to prepare the data and the L12. lag operator and twoway line to graph inflation over time and compare changes in wages and prices in the last year.
Anyone can use these Stata worksheets—they are freely available and perfect for personal exploration, upskilling, or as material for your next lab or assignment.
Ready to dive into the data? Grab the worksheets at platypuseconomics.com/stata.
Follow Platypus Economics at platypuseconomics.com/#follow to bring clear economic insights to your feed.
