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2024/2025  KAN-CCMVI2142U  Data Analytics in Economic Consulting: Practical Applications and Tools

English Title
Data Analytics in Economic Consulting: Practical Applications and Tools

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration Summer
Start time of the course Summer
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Min. participants 30
Max. participants 60
Study board
Study Board for cand.merc. and GMA (CM)
Course coordinator
  • Dario Pozzoli - Department of Economics (ECON)
Main academic disciplines
  • Methodology and philosophy of science
  • Statistics and quantitative methods
  • Economics
Teaching methods
  • Blended learning
Last updated on 07-11-2024

Relevant links

Learning objectives
  • Understand the basics of Supervised Machine Learning
  • Evaluate the principles behind maximum likelihood estimation.
  • Identify average treatment effects using instrumental variables, control function approach, regression-discontinuity-design, matching, propensity score matching, difference-in-differences, event study and duration (survival) analysis.
  • Analyze data using STATA and R (econometric software packages widely used within the economic consulting industry).
  • Demonstrate the ability to be analytical with data and perform independent advanced analyses, where the student can apply methods to a wide range of problems related to functions in the economic consulting industry and relate the results to a broader context.
  • Analyze problems suitable for functions in an Economic Consulting context, such as those related to the evaluation of both public and private programs and business interventions that typically involve the identification of causal effects.
Course prerequisites
Completed bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
The course presupposes some knowledge of statistics (such as random variables and probability distributions, inference, hypothesis testing) and calculus.
Examination
Data Analytics in Economic Consulting: Practical Applications and Tools:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Written sit-in exam on CBS' computers
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Assignment type Written assignment
Duration 4 hours
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Summer and Summer
Aids Open book: all written and electronic aids, including internet access
Read more here about which exam aids the students are allowed to bring and will be given access to : Exam aids and IT application package
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
The number of registered candidates for the make-up examination/re-take examination may warrant that it most appropriately be held as an oral examination. The programme office will inform the students if the make-up examination/re-take examination instead is held as an oral examination including a second examiner or external examiner.
The number of registered candidates for the make-up examination/re-take examination may warrant that it most appropriately be held as an oral examination. The programme office will inform the students if the make-up examination/re-take examination instead is held as an oral examination including a second examiner or external examiner.
The students who cannot take the ordinary exam need to provide a medical statement. The students who don t pass the ordinary exam can take the retake exam.
Description of the exam procedure

The exam consists of reading either a consulting or research report (typically 30-40 pages long) in which one of the methods studied in the course is implemented to some data for the purpose of dealing with an issue within economic consulting. A set of written questions will be then asked to test the students' understanding of the method and the interpretation of the results obtained within the specific consulting or research report.

Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

Evaluation of public and private interventions requires being analytical with data and curious about the ambiguity and trade-offs involved in the implementation of such programs. For instance, does exposure to long hours increase Amazon workers' productivity by securing higher wages, or does it reduce productivity by decreasing 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 practitioners to answer these types of empirical questions, whose answers are ex ante ambiguous, with a rigorous data analysis.

 

Policymakers, civil society, and businesses often need to demonstrate that investments in projects, programs, and interventions are spent effectively. Hence, the knowledge acquired in this course enables students to solve empirical questions that inevitably arise when evaluating projects in the economic consulting industry. By solving relevant practical exercises and problems in STATA and R (softwares widely used in the consulting industry), the methods taught in this course will enable students to perform comprehensive data analyses of problems typically encountered in economic consulting jobs, whether in international consulting firms (such as Copenhagen Economics and Rambøll Management Consulting), multinational companies (such as Amazon and Microsoft), ministerial departments (such as VIVE), or international organizations (such as OECD, World Bank, and the IMF).

 

Methods for Economic Consulting emphasize the practical implications of each method introduced in class to a much larger extent than standard data/statistics courses, which tend to focus mainly on theoretical aspects. Additionally, one/two economic consultants will be invited to give talks during the summer school, allowing students to gain practical insights into the methods studied in this course and network with local and international experts in the field of Economic Consulting. In previous editions of this course, we have hosted talks by economic consultants from MIT, Rambøll, Deloitte Economics, Ernst & Young, Copenhagen Economics, VIVE, and the World Bank, to name a few.

 

All the practical aspects emphasized in the course will enable students to place their business and economic consulting knowledge in a broader context. Students will learn that the methods studied in the course can be applied to a wide range of issues and projects spanning different areas (such as Environmental Economics, Labor and Personnel Economics, Public Health, Political Science, Sociology etc.). As highlighted 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 like a vague objective, but the methods studied in this course help us understand whether the interventions implemented by either the public sector or private businesses achieve the desired goal of sustainable economic growth given the ecological ceiling." The highly international profile of the guest speakers will allow students to create value for the Danish labor market through global connections.

 

Description of the teaching methods
Face-to-face teaching is integrated with quiz sessions, guest lectures and consultation hours in which students have the chance to ask questions and receive feedback.
Feedback during the teaching period
Individualized feedback is going to be provided through the quiz sessions and the tutorials in Stata and R. Furthermore, 1/2 consultants/researchers will be invited to give a talk over the course of the summer school to showcase how they use the methods studied in class in their consultancy work. These talks also offer the great opportunity to network with professionals in the field of economic consulting.
Student workload
Lectures 30 hours
Preparation 103 hours
Exam 73 hours
Further Information

6 weeks course. 

 

Preliminary Assignment: 

The course coordinator uploads Preliminary Assignment on Canvas at the end of May. It is expected that students participate as it will be included in the final exam, but the assignment is without independent assessment and grading.

 

We will discuss and review it during the first lecture.

Expected literature
  1. Wooldridge, J. M.: Introductory Econometrics. A Modern Approach. Chapters 1-6; 14; 15; 17.

Introductory Econometrics. A Modern Approach https:/​/​www.cengage.com/​c/​introductory-econometrics-a-modern-approach-7e-wooldridge/​9781337558860PF/​

 

  1. Jenkins, Stephen (2022), Survival Analysis.

 

  1. Abadie, A., & Cattaneo, M. D. (2018). Econometric methods for program evaluation. Annual Review of Economics, 10, 465-503.

 

  1. Gareth, James, Witten, Daniela, Hastie, Trevor and Tibshirani, Robert. An Introduction to Statistical Learning (second edition). Chapters 2, 5 and 6.

 

  1. Slides and notes uploaded on Canvas (Section: Slides).
Last updated on 07-11-2024