ECON 5853                              SYLLABUS                                     WINTER 2000

INSTRUCTOR: Ebenge Usip, Ph.D
OFFICE: 307 DeBartolo Hall; Hrs. MTWTh. 2-3 pm; 742-1682; Email eeusip@cc.ysu.edu
TEXT: Using Econometrics: A Practical Approach - by A. H. Studenmund (3^rd ed).
Recommended Supplement: Materials on my Website http://people.ysu.edu/~eeusip/

GRADING WEIGHT:
Exam # 1 (Date to be announced )                25% of 400 points
Exam # 2 (Date to be announced)                 25% of 400 points
Homework                                                   10% of 400 points
Project                                                         10% of 400 points
Final Exam (Mar. 18; Tue; 1300-1500)         30% of 400 points
  
APPROXIMATE SCALE: Will be explained in class.
Note: The last day to withdraw with a 'W' is Feb 13, Noon

OUTLINE
PART 1: INTRODUCTION TO CLASSICAL LINEAR REGRESSION MODEL (LRM)
1. Meaning of Econometrics & An Overview of Regression Analysis; ch. 1
2. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Method of Estimation; ch. 2
3. Introduction to the Practice of Econometrics; ch. 3
4. The Classical Linear Regression Model (LRM) & Related Assumptions; ch. 4
5. A Review of Basic Statistics and Hypothesis Testing; ch.5
       MID-TERM 1: Date to be announced

PART 2: VIOLATIONS OF THE CLASSICAL ASSUMPTIONS
1. Specification Issues & Problems; chs. 6,7
2. Multicollinearity; ch. 8
3. Serial Correlation; ch. 9
4. Heteroskedasticity; ch. 10
    MID-TERM 2: Date to be announced

PART 3: SPECIAL TOPICS IN SINGLE-EQUATION MODELING
1. A User's Handbook in the Practice of Econometrics; ch. 11
2. Introduction to Time Series Models; ch. 12
3. Dummy Dependent Variable Techniques; ch. 13

NOTES:
1. Prerequisite: Econ 630 and 705
2. Each student is required to carry out an empirical project on a topic of interest. Ch. 3 and the Web materials contain pertinent information from selecting a topic to writing the final report.
3. Class attendance is optional; however, no make-up exams will be administered. Late homework will not be graded.
4. It is the student's responsibility to be familiar with the assigned readings and all materials covered during lectures. Class participation is encouraged and rewarded.

COURSE OVERVIEW: Goals and Objectives
Measuring, testing and forecasting economic relationships are the important aspects of economic inquiry into how the real world actually operates. Econometrics is a field of economics that specializes in quantifying causal relationships among economic variables for the following objectives: (1) structural analysis of the effects (marginal and partial) of exogenous factors on the variable whose behavior we seek to explain; (2) testing hypotheses about new and existing economic theories; and (3) forecasting the estimated relationships beyond the sample period for the purpose of planning and control. Regression and correlation procedures form the basis of econometric analysis.

The goal of this course is two-fold. First, to familiarize you with the many econometric techniques that are useful in accomplishing the above objectives. Second, to expose you to a variety of real world applications. This unified approach (minimal theory and more emphasis on applications) is intended to help you develop a pattern of thought that will persist after you enter the labor force or proceed to pursue an advanced degree in economics. No great skill in statistics is required beyond Econ. 705 or equivalent. The mathematical level of the course is, for the most part, at an elementary level; but, students with strong rudiments in mathematics up to calculus will find some topics much easier to comprehend. As you will soon discover, econometrics utilizes extensively the tools of economic theory, mathematics, and statistics. In addition, it requires some proficiency in the use of the computer.

COMPUTER SOFTWARE
Many of the procedures that we will examine involve messy calculations. In today's computerized environment, the optimal focus in teaching and learning econometrics places less emphasis on hand computation and more on concepts and derivations. To this end, computer application is an integral part of this course. For the most part, the SPSS/win computer program shall be used to execute the econometric techniques that will be discussed during lectures. The advantage is that most of you are already familiar with the use of SPSS/win on the YSU Network. Be advised, however, that SPSS/win is not a dedicated econometric program. Thus, some econometric procedures are not available or easy to implement as one must write an extensive program in SPSS/win command language in order to do so. In those situations, we will use the program that is bundled with the text to implement the specific procedures.

STUDY HINTS: This course may be scarier than it really is; especially the derivation of some of the econometric results relating to the statistical properties of the estimators. You will enjoy the course if you are willing to put in a minimum amount of effort. Unlike many quantitative economics courses, most of the materials are pretty straightforward and have immediate bearing to reality. Like other economic courses it is very cumulative. People who get too far behind probably won't be able to catch up. Be sure to read the assigned topics before coming to class; come to class regularly, and come by my office at the first sign of trouble. For the five-page project, start to probe those economic issues that you always wish you could research if you had the necessary research skills. This is your chance to do so. The information in "Research Guidelines and Sources of Economic Data" on the Web is intended to make the research process more fun. Have a successful quarter.

THE PERSONAL COMPUTER : HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE COMPONENTS
Many of the calculations involved in econometric modeling are tedious and time-consuming. For this reason, we will use the computer extensively in this course. The following discussion is therefore intended to introduce you to the components and the related semantics of the personal computer.

Introduction to the Personal Computer Hardware
There are two basic types of computer hardware, viz., the Mainframe Computer, and the Personal Computer. The mainframe computer is housed on the fourth floor of the Meshel Building. Related peripherals include terminals (monitors and the attached keyboards) for gaining access to the Operating System(OS) or the Central Processing Unit (CPU), and the printers for printing hard copies of the computer outputs. These peripherals are located in Meshel and in other buildings throughout the YSU campus.

For our purpose the PC is the primary hardware. Several PCs are connected together to form a network. The keyboard, a mouse and the monitor are the primary physical components of a PC system. These are external devices. Internal components inside a PC include: memory, disk drives, hard drive, and the CPU. Usually a PC, whether a stand-alone or part of a network, is connected to a desk printer to obtain hard copies of computer outputs. Thus, a PC system refers to a PC box with the internal components, a keyboard, a mouse, a monitor, and a printer.

The Keyboard and the Mouse are your input devices. You use the keyboard to type what you want the computer to do. The format in which you specify your requests is very rigid and stylized. Learning the command syntax of the Disk Operating System (DOS) is often the hardest part of learning to use the PC even in those situations where DOS is run under the windows graphical interface. There are many different models of computer keyboards but they all look like extended typewriter keyboards. Some have a few keys (notebooks and laptops), some have many extra keys, all have some keys labeled differently from a standard typewriter keyboard. But all keyboards have an area where alphabetic keys and the digits and the "standard" symbols (such as punctuation, $, %, &) are arranged as on a typewriter keyboard.

On some keyboards, the "carriage return" key is labeled "Enter"; on others, it is labeled with an arrow that points down one line and to the left; others have it labeled both ways. The carriage return key is also commonly a different shape from the corresponding key on a typewriter, but it is always in the correct general location at the right edge of the alphabetic keys.

The extra keys on the keyboard are used for special functions and are appropriately called the "function keys" (F1 through F10 or F12). They are essentially important to software developers. Many programs make extensive use of these extra keys. Ignore for now the mechanics of using these keys. All inputting will be done by using the "standard" keys and the mouse.

The mouse is the primary input device in windows graphical-interface environment. Entering a command is as easy as clicking the mouse on a specific menu item to select the desired command option.

The Monitor is the computer's primary output device. The input that you enter via the keyboard or a mouse is usually echo printed on the monitor. When you enter a command that produces output it is displayed on the monitor, unless you direct the output to the printer.

Introduction to Computer Software: The Disk Operating System(DOS)
The usual way to organize information on a computer is to divide it into files. A computer file is conceivably much the same as a file that you would store on paper in a file cabinet. It is only the physical representation that is different: a computer file is stored on a magnetic disk.

Often we will want to do things to files: create them, edit them, read them, print them, erase them. To do so we need some way of referring to them: we will call this a file identification (or in short file id). For PCs the format for file id is FN.EXT where FN denotes FileName (at the most eight alphanumeric characters long) and EXT is an abbreviation for EXTension (at the most three alphanumeric characters long).

DOS is the program that keeps all parts of a computer functioning in harmony. When you start a session on a computer you will be communicating directly with DOS as soon as you boot the system by turning on the power on the PC and monitor. The monitor displays a prompt (a line starting with C:\>), then leaves the blinking cursor immediately after the > character. The prompt is a signal that the computer is ready for your input. Some typical responses at this point might be:

DOS command requesting a list of files that have been created previously.
    e.g; DIR/P (to list files on C: drive ) or DIR/P A: (to list files on A: drive)

DOS command to rename a particular file.
    e.g; REName BOB.CBS BOB.HW1

DOS command requesting that a particular file be erased.
    e.g; DELete BOB.CBS

DOS command requesting that a particular file be printed.
    e.g; Print BOB.CBS

DOS command requesting that a particular program be executed.
e.g; load the Windows graphical-interface operating system by typing WIN at the DOS prompt.

Note: You must hit the enter key for DOS to accept the commands that you issue at the prompt.

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Copyright© Ebenge Usip, all rights reserved.
Last revised: March 28, 1997.