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2016/2017  BA-BHAAV1016U  Quantitative Methods

English Title
Quantitative Methods

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Bachelor
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Autumn
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Max. participants 100
Study board
Study Board for BSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Morten Lau - Department of Economics (ECON)
Main academic disciplines
  • Methodology and philosophy of science
  • Statistics and quantitative methods
  • Economics
Last updated on 22-11-2016
Learning objectives
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or errors:
  • Demonstrate knowledge of concepts, models, methods and tools in econometrics, corresponding to the course syllabus
  • Evaluate an empirical study which another has produced
  • Implement a reasonably simple econometric analysis in practice
Examination
Quantitative Methods:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Written sit-in exam
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Assignment type Written assignment
Duration 4 hours
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Winter
Aids allowed to bring to the exam Limited aids, see the list below:
  • Written sit-in-exam on CBS' computers
  • Written sit-in-exam with pen and paper
  • Books and compendia brought by the examinee
  • Notes in paper format brought by the examinee
  • USB key to upload your notes before the exam
  • Any calculators
  • All dictionaries
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
If the number of registered candidates for the make-up examination/re-take examination warrants that it may most appropriately be held as an oral examination, the programme office will inform the students that the make-up examination/re-take examination will be held as an oral examination instead.
Description of the exam procedure

Part of the test is based on a previous data analysis (48 hour take home). At the end of the 4-hour written exam, answers to the exam paper are handed in along with results from the previous data analysis to the extent that they are relevant for the answers.

 

The exam is in English.

 
Course content and structure

How do you measure and elicit individual attitudes to financial risk and time delay of income? Are women more patient and more averse to taking risk in financial matters than men? Are men more likely to become pathological gamblers than women? Are women more likely to smoke cigarettes than men, and if so do they smoke more per day than men? How do you control for selection bias in the statistical analysis of responses to survey questions and experimental decision tasks? How do you elicit and estimate predictions about the likelihood of future events?

The main objective of the course is to provide students with the necessary tools to answer such questions by introducing a range of statistical models and methods. The course will focus on applied aspects of econometrics, as opposed to theoretical aspects. We will use data from surveys and experiments that are designed to answer the questions above, as well as panel and time series data. The course is designed to target students who intend to conduct empirical analysis during their undergraduate and graduate study programs.

The course will focus on various applications of basic regression models. Throughout the course emphasis will be placed on the qualitative and quantitative understanding of statistical models. That is, how can you translate a qualitative research question into a quantitative model and make inferences? A recurring theme during the course is the distinction between correlation and causation. Despite this simple distinction much of the difficulty in econometrics stems from the desire to make causal inferences from observational data. 

 

 

 
Teaching methods
A combination of lectures and PC-based exercise classes are used. The statistical models and methods are presented and discussed in class, as well as survey and experimental data to illustrate the quantitative methods. We will use the statistical software program Stata in the course to estimate the econometric models. Guest lecturers may be invited to discuss empirical examples of their own work that are relevant to the topics that we discuss in class.
Student workload
Preparation / exam 170 hours
Classes 36 hours
Expected literature

Stock, J. H. and Watson, M., Introduction to Econometrics (Pearson Education, 2011).

 The textbook is supplemented with a few scientific articles that are relevant to some of the course examples.
Last updated on 22-11-2016