A Graphics Design Framework to Visualize Multi-Dimensional Economic Datasets.

This study implements a prototype graphics visualization framework to visualize multidimensional data. This graphics design framework serves as a ‘visual analytical database’ for visualization and simulation of economic models. One of the primary goals of any kind of visualization is to extract useful information from colossal volumes of data and more importantly, communicate the extracted information. Using a multidimensional framework not only significantly enhances the ability to view multiple variables, but also brings together diverse data formats on one canvas. Economists cope with huge multi-dimensional data sets on a day-to-day basis. Various graphic and tabulation methods have been used for methodically representing and analyzing such colossal data. However, not much effort has been directed towards applying desktop Virtual Reality (dVR) based technologies to visualize such multidimensional economic data sets. Such procedures enable data visualization without compromising the richness of preserving multiple dimensions relevant to the analytic questions in consideration. We demonstrate the possibility of such an application to a widely used time-series bilateral multi-sector trade dataset. Usefulness of this framework and application is shown using several analytical and numerical examples.