Project Overview

The project explored the relationship of international trade between partner countries based on product type, trade value, and year using data from the Harvard Atlas of Economic Complexity. Product types are separated using the 4 digit Harmonized System allowing for drill downs among three levels of trade goods. The dashboards created from the data sets seek to display the past relationships between countries in regards to trade values and use these trends in conjunction with Complexity Indexes to determine potential future increases or decreases by product type and partner.

Project Objectives

• Discover the highest growing trade product from section down to the 4 digit level and identify current top importers of those products, as well as the relation of US exports between these top partners.
• Identify the United States top trade partner trends and determine increasing or decreasing trade levels.
• Use forecasting analysis to determine potential future trade values for the US in comparison to international trade growth.

Student Reflections

The project was an excellent and challenging opportunity to bring everything I’ve learned so far at Northeastern University’s Data Analytics program into practice with a real-world large data set. Dr. Mello’s guidance throughout the course was crucial in gaining the knowledge necessary to bring everything together into a useful and thoughtfully designed dashboard that highlights  trends in international trade. The experience was invaluable in strenghtening my skills in data analytics, and I look forward to applying everything learned in the Data Visualization course.