Economics 31 Rob Hollister
Statistics for Economist Fall 1999

Please refer to the web site
www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/Economics/econ31/index.html for complete
information on the course and some of the materials listed below.

Please find listed below the topics to be covered and the assignment in the
texts for each topic. We are using two texts (which overlap to a
considerable degree). They are: Thad Mirer Economic Statistics and
Econometrics, 3rd Edition (referred to below as Mirer) and Ralph Beals
Statistics for Economists (referred to below as Beals). Mirer is available
in the bookstore. You will be given a xeroxed copy of Beals.

You will also use: "The Elements of Regression Analysis" xeroxed notes by
R. Hollister (hereafter referred to as Notes), which are on the web site.

You will be doing regression analysis on the computer using a program
called STATA. There are multiple copies of STATA on the network, both Mac
and PC versions. There is an introduction to using STATA on the web site.

Problem sets and some of the handouts are also on the web site. The
problem sets are referred to below as PS...

SYLLABUS

NOTE: PS1 will be due at the first discussion section, PS2....the second discussion section, PS3....etc.

Week 1: Descriptive Statistics- basic statistics

Mirer Chap. 1-4
PS1

Week 2: Descriptive Statistics- Simple and Multiple Regression,

Mirer Chap. 5, pg. 105-111, 132-151, Beals Chap. 11,12, 13, Notes pg. 1-28
PS2

Week 3: Statistical Inference-Probability,

Mirer Chap. 8, pg. 132-151, Beals Chap. 2,3,4,5,
PS3
Handout 1¹, Handout 2

First In-term Exam Sept.23

Week 4:More Expected Values and Probability Distributions

Mirer Chap. 9, Beals Chap.3,4,5
PS4
Handout 1, Handout 2

Week 5:Statistical Inference-Normal curves, Z-tests, and sample distributions

Mirer Chap 9, 10, Beals pg.218-224, Chap. 6
PS5
Handout 1

Week 6:Confidence Intervals and Hypothesis tests

Mirer Chap 18, Beals Chap.8, Notes pg. 29-33
PS6

Week 7: Hypothesis testing with regression coefficients

Mirer Chap. 11, 12, 13, Beals Chap. 9,10,11, Notes pg. 34-42
PS7

Second In-term Exam Nov.3

Week 8: Complex Hypothesis-F Tests

Mirer Chap 14, Notes pg. 42-46
PS8
Handout 3

Week 9: Functional Form

Mirer Pg. 111-130, 151-156, Beals Chap. 12
PS9

Week 10: Introduction to Decision Theory

PS10
Handout 4A, Handout 4B, Handout 4C

Week 11 and 12: Non-Standard Regression Analysis

Mirer Chap. 15, 17 Beals Chap 7, 13, 14, Notes pg. 47-82
PS11
Handout 5, Handout 6

Week 13 and 14: Review /Catchup

Handout 7

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¹For description of handouts see here