Eurostat

In this online exercise, we will look at data collected from Eurostat. Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union. In cooperation with the statistical offices of the members states, it provides a wide range of data publicly, both on the national and subnational level. It also provides maps and geographical data. The data ranges from economic indicators to demographics and subject-specific indicators, for example on climate change and quality of life.

While reading, please keep in mind the questions below and answer them once you reached the end. In the final panel, we will provide a link to a platform with an interactive version of the dataset and additional tasks.

Table 1: General Tasks for the Dataset

Tasks
Did the 2008 financial and economic crisis lead to increases in unemployment and losses of income across Europe?
What is the effect of joining the EU on income, unemployment, and foreign language skills?

Income

One variable included in Eurostat is income, measured as the median equivalised net income in each country. More information can be found here.

Figure 1 shows the median income across Europe, with each line representing one country. There are some data issues in the first half of the 2000s, so a different dataset might be better to use if you are interested specifically in this time.

Figure 2 below splits the data into separate countries.

Unemployment

An additional variable included in Eurostat is unemployment, measured as the share of unemployed compared to the population in the workforce. More information can be found here.

Figure 3 shows the unemployment rate across Europe, with each line representing one country. There are big spikes after the 2008 financial crisis, but decreasing unemployment until a slight increase in 2020.

Figure 4 now shows the unemployment rate for each country. We can now study which countries did not have increases in unemployment after the 2008 crisis as well as the effect of joining the EU for countries such as Bulgaria or Croatia.

Foreign Languages

A final variable included in Eurostat we will look at is knwoledge of foreign languages, measured as the share of the population that does not know any foreign language. Presumably, European integration would lead more people to learn foreign languages as they are able to work, live and study in other countries. More information can be found here.

Figure 5 shows this rate across Europe, with each line representing one country. Of course, this data is somewhat less reliable, because it is self-reported in surveys compared to for example unemployment numbers, which are based on people applying for unemployment.

Figure 6 now shows this share for each country. Some countries have very high foreign languages skills throughout. Meanwhile, there are some countries such as Bulgaria or Belgium where this number goes up in some surveys, which is curious since being able to use a second languages such as English is increasingly common around the world. Before using such time series data, we should always investigate whether it was measured consistently over time.