Andres Aradillas-LopezDepartment of EconomicsFall, 2010.ECON 310: Statistics: Measurement in Economics.Lecture: Tuesday and Thursday, 1:00PM−2:15PM, Social Science Building 6104.Course Description: This course is an introduction to the analy sis of economic data. We will study thetechniques of descriptive statistics and statistical infere nce (hypothesis testing and e stimation) as directedtoward application in economic rese arch.Professor: Andres Aradilla s-Lopez ([email protected])website: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/∼aaradillOffice Hours: Wednesday 2:00-3:30pm. Office: Social Science Building 645 8.Teaching Assistants: Shenjie Hong ([email protected])Irina Merkurieva ([email protected])TA Office Hours: TBAPrerequisites: One introductory economics course and Math 211 or 221.Textbook: “Introduction to the Practice of Statistics”, by David Moore, George McCabe and Bruce Craig,sixth edition (Freeman). Please note that the textbook problems assigned for homework will refer to thesixth edition, not previo us ones.Grading:∙ Homework (20%)∙ One midterm exam (35%)∙ Cumulative final exam (45%)Homework: There w ill be 10 problem sets. Each one will be due before lecture on the specified dates.Late assignments will not be accepted. However, the lowest problem set grade will be dropped andwill not count towards your final grade. The course has a strong empirical emphasis and consequently1a number of problem sets w ill involve computational data analysis. All such problems can be solvedusing Excel, or a number of other statistical packages, and you are free to use the program of yourpreference. Excel is installed in a ll 16 ge ne ral-access computer labs. For precise information, goto http://www.doit.wisc.edu/computerlabs/ . Software information for each lab can be found athttp://www.doit.wisc.edu/computerlabs/software.asp . Students are encour aged to work with othersin the clas s on homework, but each student must wr ite up his/her own solutions.Midterm Exam: There will be one in-class midterm exam on October 2 8. There will be no make-up dates.Final Exam: The final exam will be cumulative. It is scheduled for December 22, from 5:05PM-7:05PM.Room TBA.Course Outline :The following is the tentative outline of to pic s for the course with the corresponding textbook chapters. Wewill supplement a number of topics with additional class notes to b e be posted at:http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/∼aaradill/econ310f09.htmlWeeks 1 and 2 (Sept. 2,7,9)∙ Graphic de scription of data (Chapter 1.1)∙ Numerical description of data (Chapter 1.2)Week 3 (Sept. 14, 16)∙ The Normal distribution (Chapter 1.3)∙ Standardization of the Normal distribution I (Chapter 1.3)Week 4 (Sept. 21, 23)∙ Standardization of the Normal distribution II (Chapter 1.3)∙ Scatterplots and correlatio n (Chapters 2.1, 2.2)Week 5 (Sept. 28, 30)∙ Least-squa res regression (Chapter 2.3)Week 6 (Oct. 5, 7)∙ Correlation and causation (Chapters 2.4, 2.6)∙ Data collection and sample designs (Chapters 3.1, 3.2)2Week 7 (Oct. 12, 14)∙ Sampling distributions (Cha pter 3.3)∙ Randomness and probability models I (Cha pters 4.1, 4.2)Week 8 (Oct. 19, 21)∙ Randomness and probability models II (Chapters 4.1, 4.2)∙ Random variables, expectation and variance I (Chapters 4.3, 4.4, 4.5)Week 9 (Oct. 26, 28)∙ Random variables, expectation and variance II (Chapters 4.3, 4.4, 4.5)∙ Midterm Exam (Oct. 2 8)Week 10 (Nov. 2, 4)∙ Law of Large Numbers (Chapter 4.4)∙ Sampling distributions for counts and proportions (Chapter 5.1)Week 11 (Nov. 9, 11)∙ Sampling distributions for sample means (Chapters 5.1, 5.2)∙ Central Limit Theorem (Chapter 5.2)Week 12 (Nov. 16, 18)∙ Confidence intervals (Chapter 6.1)∙ Hypothesis Tests I (Chapter 6.2)Week 13 (Nov. 23, 25)∙ Hypothesis Tests II (Chapter 6.2)∙ Inference for the mean (Chapter 7.1)Week 14 (Nov. 30, Dec. 2)Comparing the means of two populations (Chapter 7.2)Inference for prop ortions (Chapters 8.1, 8.2)Week 15 (Dec. 7, 9)∙ Inference in a simple linear r e gression I (Chapter 10.1)Week 16 (Dec. 14)∙ Inference in a simple linear r e gression I (Chapter
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