PROFESSOR: Robert B. Archibald

OFFICE: Morton 125

PHONE: 221-2366 (office)

565-0712 (home)

EMAIL: rbarch@wm.edu

OFFICE HOURS: M 2:00-3:00

TuTh 9:00-10:00

W 10:00-11:00 or by appointment

TEXTS: Economic Statistics and Econometrics, by Thad W. Mirer (Prentice Hall, 1995)

Getting Started STATA release 5 (Stata Press, 1997)

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is basically a low-level mathematics class designed for economics concentrators. I will assume that students have a good grasp of basic algebra, and though I may on occasion use calculus to motivate the discussion, calculus is not required and knowledge of calculus will not be necessary for the exams. The course will cover basic statistics with a particular emphasis on regression analysis, the statistical technique used most often by economists. This course is a prerequisite for Economics 308 – Econometrics, and it should provide a sound foundation for those who want to go further with economics statistics. These students will be able to actually produce sophisticated statistical results. It also should provide a good background for students for whom this will be the last statistics course. These students should be able to understand the sophisticated statistical results produced by their fellow students and other economists.

STUDYING FOR ECONOMICS 307: Since this is a mathematics course everyone should know the key to success. For those who have forgotten, the key to success in a mathematics class is: DO THE PROBLEMS! The textbook has problems and has several examples worked out. The instructor will make available additional problems (and solutions). There will be no assigned homework problems. It will be the students’ responsibility to do enough problems to master the material. The actual number of problems any one student will have to do t0 achieve mastery will depend upon the material and the students. Each student is responsible for doing enough problems.

COMPUTERS AND ECONOMICS 307: Computers are very useful in economic statistics. Some of the calculations required to obtain useful results are very tedious to do by hand. We will learn how to obtain results using the statistical program STATA. STATA is available in the labs in Morton 240-244. STAT is a modern PC based statistical package that should be very easy to learn. There will be assigned projects using STATA. Also the Mirer textbook uses data sets to provide its examples. These data sets will be made available to students so that they can follow the textbook using STATA.

PROJECTS: There will be four projects in Economics 307. All of the projects will essentially be computer assignments. Descriptions of the projects will be handed out in class. Dates for the projects are given below:

Project 1 – Descriptive Statistics – due Sep 14

Project 2 – Data Acquisition – due Sep 28

Project 3 – Hypothesis Test – due Nov 2

Project 3 – Regression – due Nov 30

EXAMS: There will be three exams during the semester and a final exam. Exams during the semester will be two-part exams. Each exam will have an in-class portion and an out-of-class portion. This procedure affords us two advantages: (1) Students can do a portion of the exam without time pressure, and (2) questions that require extensive calculations that are inappropriate in an in-class exam can be included.

GRADING: Grades will be based upon the following scale: Projects - 100 points, Exams during the Semester – 300 points, and Final Exam - 200 points.