# World Development Indicators¶

A collection of cross country data on

• gdp and its components
• employment
• demographics
• education
• government finances
• and much more

## Getting the Data¶

The best format is probably xls.

One gets a file with years as columns.

## Getting the Data Into Matlab¶

Replace the column headers for the years with something that makes a valid variable name (e.g. x1970).

Run through Stat/Transfer to obtain a Matlab dataset.

Load the file into matlab. Convert the data portion of the matrix into a matrix by [year, country].

Country indicators are World Bank WITS codes (essentially the same as ISO codes).

The code now directly reads the xls file

## Matlab Code¶

### Directories¶

• prog: programs
• excel: raw xls files and generated mat files (one for each variable)
• outDir: tables and figures

### Programs¶

• const_wdi2013: set constants
• var_load_yc_wdi2013: load one variable by [country, year]
• country_list_wdi2013: make a list of all countries in the data (WITS codes)

## Exercises¶

1. Construct GDP per worker (i.e. per employed person) in constant international dollars.
1. Save it as a Matlab matrix by [country, year].
2. How does it compare with PWT data?
2. Plot the fraction of self-employed workers against GDP per capita in constant international dollars. For the year 2000. What do you find?
3. Download a variable from the WDI web site and import it into Matlab.