Simon Davies :: EC20018 Cross-sectional Econometrics

Main lecture notes for EC20018 Core Skills for Economists: Introduction to Statistics (Module Coordinator: Dr. Pete Dawson).

Announcements:

Week 9 (26/11) no class as I am away. The usual room will be available from 4.15-6.05pm, and you are encouraged to use it for your work.
An additional class has been provisionally set for Thursday, 6th December, 6.15-8.05pm in 3E 3.1. CONFIRMED. This is a drop-in class, and you can stay as long or as short as you like to work and to get help/ask questions about your projects (or any other econometric questions you may have).
In weeks 10 and 11, all classes can be considered 2 hours in length (from 4.15-6.05pm) and all 3 of us teaching on this course (Pete, myself, Issam) will be available in all your classes to answer your questions/help you regarding your projects.
I draw your attention to the following document, which is a survey of what employers expect from graduate economists. It is essential (and easy) reading, and you should make sure you are both capable in those areas mentioned, and able to demonstrate it to potential employers. The Skills and Knowledge of the Graduate Economist: Essential (and easy) reading. A survey indicating what skills (e.g. objectivity, communication, IT,...) and knowledge (e.g. constrained choice, opportunity cost,...) employers expect graduate economists to be able to apply easily.

Course Information:

If you have a fast internet connection, you should be able to access E-views from home through the university computer system via Virtual Private Network. Once you are signed in, you can access E-views by going through START --> PROGRAMS --> ACCESSORIES --> COMMUNICATION --> REMOTE DESKTOP. You need to connect to "terms.campus.bath.ac.uk" (without quotation marks) and sign in with your university login and password (select CAMPUS option from dropdown menu if not automatically selected).
All data files we will use can be downloaded from from Pete Dawson's website.

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Notes / Handouts:

Accessing Economic Literature and Data: A list of websites to access data sets (e.g. for your project) and general economic data, plus places to look for journal articles/economic literature.

Interpreting Regression Output: A (mostly) non-technical summary for cross-sectional OLS.

Interpreting Coefficients OLS models with Non-Linear Variables: Some notes to help you interpret coefficients from linear, log-lin, lin-log and log-log models. Plus interpreting quadratic terms. All for OLS models. Looks like a lot of maths but all easy steps to show how calculatations are made.

Basic Regression Hints: Help and hints on selection of explanitory variables, type of regression to run, converting categorical variables to dummies, how missing variables can lead to biased coefficients. A must-read before you start your project!

Checklist: Use this checklist to make sure you are up to date and comfortable with key regression modelling and interpretation before moving on to more complicated models.