INFLUNEM.RPF

INFLUNEM.RPF is an example of repetitive analysis. It does an overlay graph of unemployment and inflation for seven countries.

The data are on a RATS format file with a pattern of names which have a three character country prefix followed by suffixes of "SUR" (Standardized Unemployment Rate) and "DEFLS" (for price deflator).

This loops over the country prefixes, with pseudo-code

declare label country

dofor country = "can" "deu" "fra" "gbr" "ita" "jpn" "usa"

read deflator and unemployment for country prefix

create inflation

do overlay graph

end dofor

We re-use series names PRICE, SUR and INFLATION for each country. Because different countries have different data ranges, we use the CLEAR instruction before reading a country's data. We use the redirection on DATA to read data with the created data series names into the target series (PRICE and SUR). Because the redirection wants a string literal, we use the & prefix on the constructed string. We create an annualized inflation rate from the deflator.

clear price sur

data(format=rats) / sur<<&country+"sur" price<<&country+"defls"

set inflation = 400.0*log(price/price{1})

The INQUIRE instruction determines the maximum range over which both inflation and unemployment are defined and those are used in the GRAPH instruction.

inquire(regressorlist) n1 n2

# sur inflation

graph(header="Inflation vs Unemployment for "+%strupper(country),overlay=line) 2

# sur n1 n2

# inflation n1 n2

Full Program

open data oecddata.rat

cal(q) 1960:1

all 1998:4