• Describe features of cross-section data and panel data as well as duration data and compare the assumptions behind and features of different models for these types of data.
• Analyze problems suitable for functions in an Economic Consulting context such as those connected to the evaluations of both public and private programs and interventions that typically involve the identification of causal effects.
• Analyze problems associated with endogeneity in linear models as well as discrete response models, panel data regressions and explain solutions to this type of problems.
• Evaluate the principles behind and problems associated with estimating models for multinomial and ordinal discrete choice variables. Explain the principles of maximum likelihood estimation.
• Analyze the identification of average treatment effects using instrumental variables, control function approach, endogenous switching, matching and propensity score matching.
• or all models mentioned above, reflect on the applicability of a type of model in a given empirical setting, evaluate the principles behind estimation, and test hypotheses about parameters of interest by using STATA (an econometric software package widely used within the economic consulting industry).
• Demonstrate the ability to be analytical with data and make independent advanced analyses, where the student is able to apply the methods to a wide range of different problems related to functions in the economic consulting industry and to relate the results to a wide context.

Evaluation of public and private interventions requires to be analytical with data and curious about the ambiguity and trade-offs involved in the implementation of such programs. Does a national restriction to immigration save native workers' jobs or does it trigger an outflow of jobs to offshoring countries by inducing domestic firms to relocate abroad? Does a public subsidy to automation technologies negatively affect low skilled workers' employment or does it boost it by promoting firms' productivity? Does the exposure to long hours increase Amazon workers' productivity by securing higher wages or does it reduce workers' productivity by reducing their retention? Does a public intervention in the form of a social media campaign positively or negatively affect vaccination rates? This course introduces a wide range of quantitative methods that allow researchers  and practioners to answer this type of empirical questions whose answers are ex ante ambiguous with the use of comprehensive data. Policy makers, civil society and businesses often have a need for demonstrating that investments in projects, programs and interventions are spent in effective manner. Hence, the knowledge acquired in this course allows to solve empirical questions that inevitably arise when project evaluations are performed in the economic consulting industry.  By solving relevant practical exercises and problems in STATA (a software widely used in the consulting industry), the methods taught in this course will enable students to actually perform an econometric analysis of problems typically encountered in an economic consulting job, i.e. a job in an international consulting firm (such as Copenhagen Economics and Rambøll Management Consulting), a multinational company (such as Amazon and Microsoft),  a ministerial department (such as VIVE), or  an international organization (such as OECD, World Bank and the IMF).  Methods for Economic Consulting emphasizes to a much larger extent the practical implications of each method introduced in class compared to standard econometric courses, which tend to mainly focus on the theoretical aspects. Finally, two/three economic consultants will be invited to give a talk over the semester so that the students can get practical insights on the methods studied in this course and network with international experts in the field of Economic Consulting. In previous editions of this course, we have hosted talks by economic consultants from MIT, Rambøll, Uppsala University, VIVE and World Bank to cite a few. All of the practical aspects emphasized in the course will allow the students to place their business and economic consulting knowledge in a wide context. The students will in fact learn that the methods studied in the course can be applied to a wide range of issues and projects that spam different areas  (such as Environemntal Economics, Labor and Personnel Economics, Public Health, Political Science etc.).  As highligheted once by a guest speaker from the consulting industry: "The approach to sustainable economics and finance in our economic consulting company  is not just about unconditional economic growth. It's about creating a thriving society that meets the needs of all within the means of the planet. This may sound a very vague objective. However, the econometric methods studied in this course help us to understand whether the interventions implemented by either the public sector or private businesses achieve the desired goal of a sustainable economic growth given the ecological ceiling".The highly international profile of the guest speakers will finally allow the students to create value for the Danish labor market from global connections.

Required:

Wooldridge, J. M. (2016): Introductory Econometrics. A Modern Approach.

Jenkins, Stephen (2015), Survival Analysis (pdf provided on canvas)

Richard Blundell, Lorraine Dearden and Barbara Sianesi (2005), Evaluating the Effect of Education on Earnings: Models, Methods and Results from the National Child Development Survey, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (Statistics in Society), Vol. 168, No. 3, pp. 473-512. (pdf provided on learn)

Lecture notes and handouts.

Recommended:

Joshua Angrist and Jörn-Steffen Pischke, (2020). Master Metrics.  

Cameron and Trivedi (2015). Microeconometrics using Stata.