This course intends to expose you to the statistical techniques that economists use for estimating, testing, and forecasting economic relationships. The emphasis is on understanding the techniques involved and what they mean in terms of the economic problem being studied. Successful completion of this course should allow you to (1) understand empirical literature in economics and (2) be prepared to start doing independent research using economic data, particularly in upper-level classes. This course will emphasize economic applications over statistical theory. Through this course, you will have gained the skills necessary to be a thoughtful consumer of social science research. You will be able read and understand the output that is generated when you estimate a model. You will be able to identify and analyze the basic problems that can arise when using ordinary least squares estimation and you will be able to implement the appropriate techniques to overcome these problems. Students often find the course to be rigorous and demanding. We will move quickly and cover a large amount of material. I advise you to prepare for class and keep up with the material, as the course does not lend itself to memorization or all-night cram sessions.

This course will introduce students to a core set of topics in statistics. The class will be composed of four areas of study (1) describing, presenting and analyzing data; (2) probability theory, distributions (discrete and continuous), and random variables; (3) sampling theory, estimation and hypothesis testing; (4) linear regression analysis. The objectives of the course are to provide students with a practical knowledge of statistics in order to better understand current events and policy discussions; to introduce students to the data analysis, formal models and problem-solving methods used by statisticians and econometricians; to enable students to read and understand basic economic research that uses statistical methods; to prepare students for further study in econometrics; and to teach students how to use and perform statistical analysis using Stata.

This undergraduate course serves as an introduction to the study of microeconomics. Microeconomics is a framework that allows us to study the world given certain assumptions about the behavior of individuals and groups. As such, economists research a variety of topics including (but not limited to) trade, labor markets, education, crime, and marriage and fertility. Economists are trained to think in unique ways, and thus provide insights missed by other social scientists. The goal of this course is to equip you with the basics of such thinking. In this endeavor, we explore interesting questions and learn simple tools that economists use to shed light on complicated questions.