EC204 Fall 201 9 Gelsheimer Syllabus PDF

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BOSTON UNIVERSITY Economics 204: Empirical Economics II Instructor: Office Location: Office Hours: Email:

Dr. Stacey Gelsheimer 264 Bay State Rd, Room 412B Tuesdays & Thursdays 2-3pm & 6:30-7:30 by appt. [email protected]

TA: Office: Office Hours: Email:

Yiming Cao SSW B02 TBD [email protected]

Before emailing: 1. Try to find the answer on Blackboard or Mindtap. 1a. Come to office hours 2. Email the TA. 3. Ask me in class! ***NOTE: If you do need to send an email, PLEASE include in the subject line of your email the course and section, as well as some detail relating to the subject. For example: “EC204- Can’t find HW”; or “EC204- Question on #10 on HW”; or “EC204- Need to See You in OH ASAP.” Please don’t write: Subject: Help! Emails are sorted and filtered into a special folder that makes it easier to see. Also PLEASE don’t reply to an announcement email, as the subject line does not change and your email will get buried since Outlook will not make it obvious that it’s a new email. ***The above instructions are probably also welcome and appreciated by your other professors as well. Office Hours and Appointments: If you have a course or work conflict with the scheduled times for office hours (for me or the TA) please do not hesitate to contact us and we’ll find another time or way to meet.

CONTINUED →

Important Administrative Dates: Sept. 3rd Oct. 7th Oct. 14th Oct. 15th Nov. 8th Nov. 27th-Dec. 1st Dec. 11th Dec. 12th-15th Dec. 16th-20th

Classes Begin Last Day to Drop without a “W” Columbus Day Holiday, No Classes Substitute Monday Schedule of Classes Last Day to Drop with a “W” Thanksgiving Recess Last Day of Classes Study Period Final Exams

***Note: this course does not have a scheduled “final exam” during Finals Period ***Note: No class on Tuesday, Nov. 26th (the Tuesday before Thanksgiving) Final Paper Due: Wednesday, Dec. 11th @ 11:59pm Course Description: This is the second course in the introductory level sequence in empirical economic analysis, and will focus on regression analysis (econometrics). Prerequisites: EC101 Introductory Microeconomic Analysis and EC102 Introductory Macroeconomic Analysis, and EC203 (or EC305 or the equivalent). Course Web Site: All course documents and announcements will be posted on the course site, which can be accessed at https://learn.bu.edu/. Textbook: Wooldridge, Jeffrey M. Introductory Econometrics: a Modern Approach. 7th ed. Cengage/Mindtap is also required (access purchased through the bookstore or online). Registration and purchasing instructions are available on Blackboard under the “Syllabus, Mindtap and Stata Sessions” tab. Your subscription includes an eText of the required textbook and has an option to rent a paper version for $7.99. Assigned Problems: A substantial amount of homework is assigned in this course because proficiency in statistics occurs with much practice. Also, it is encouraged that students work together on the homework assignments because better learning of the material usually occurs through student discussion and interaction. Assignments will be posted on the Mindtap website, accessible through Blackboard. Late assignments are not accepted as answers are released exactly at the due data/time. Note that your scores for your lowest two "content" homework assignments and your one lowest Stata homework assignment will be dropped before calculating your averages.

Software (Stata): There are now several options for using Stata, including a few that are available through BU so that you do not have to buy it. (Of course, there are tradeoffs to using it on campus vs. having a version on your own computer, so make sure you think about these things carefully. You could also consider using it on campus for the first assignment and seeing how it goes.) ***If you would like to purchase it, it can be ordered online at: https://www.stata.com/order/new/edu/gradplans/student-pricing/ For the class you should purchase Stata/IC 15 ($198 for a perpetual license, $89 for a one-year license, $45 for 6 months) which has no limitations on the size of the data set used, and which would be very useful for any type of analysis you might want to do in the future, either for an internship or a senior honors thesis. The software includes extensive documentation in pdf format, including the introductory “Getting Started with Stata” manual which will be referred to in class. We will start using Stata right away, so students should be sure to buy their copy of Stata by the SECOND week of classes. Stata sessions are available for learning the basics of Stata and highly recommended for those who did not learn it (or who don’t feel super confident with their Stata skills). The sessions are described in detail in the document titled “Stata instruction for the empirical

sequence”, available on Blackboard and at the end of this syllabus. Research Paper: Writing this paper will provide students with the opportunity to pose a question, develop a hypothesis, and then apply the econometric skills developed in class to analyze the issue empirically. Details about the research paper will be discussed in class. Exams: All exams will be based on questions drawn from material covered in the text, lectures, and problem sets. In other words, all material associated with the course may appear on exams, including lecture material that is not in the text, so students should maintain a good set of class notes. Due to past problems with cheating on exams, students may NOT use a graphing calculator, or any other programmable calculator. Scientific, Financial and Simple Calculators are permitted. Exam Dates: The two midterms will be held in the same room as lectures, during regular class time. The dates for the midterms, including material covered, will be announced in class and posted on the course site at least two weeks before the exam will be held. Makeup Exams: There will be no makeup exams for either midterm. If you miss one due to a documented medical emergency (a signed note from a doctor, on their letterhead, indicating that you were seen on the day of the exam will be required), then the points for it will be added to the other exam. Also, please note that under no circumstances will either midterm be administered on a different date than scheduled because of travel plans or family events (if, though, there is a family medical crisis, you should contact me about this and I may approve shifting points for the first midterm to the second). Any changes to an announced exam date, time, or place will be announced in class and posted on the course website (emails will also be

sent to the class, but if your mailbox is full you may not get the email). It is the responsibility of the student to be aware of these changes. Grades: Course grades will be based on two midterm exams (30% each), a research paper (20%) and a combination of homework assignments using Cengage Mindtap (10%) and textbook Stata problems (10%). Your final grade will be based on a curve reflecting the Final Course Score, with the median score receiving a grade of B. Attendance: If you miss class you are responsible for getting lecture notes from a classmate. The structure of knowledge in econometrics is strongly hierarchic in that each successive lecture tends to build on prior material in a rather systematic fashion. As such it is very easy to fall behind if you miss a class and do not study the missed material before the subsequent lecture. Computers in the Classroom: Student are encouraged to bring their computers to the classroom in order to periodically access Stata in class. Please note, though, that it is STRICTLY prohibited to use your computers during lecture to browse the web, use email, check your Facebook page, shop on Amazon, and so forth. Class Preparation and Participation: The best way to learn the material (in addition to solving problems) is to read the assigned chapters before the lecture, to ask questions during the lecture, and then to look over the chapter again and your notes after the lecture. Student Athletes: If you must miss an exam due to participation in a BU athletic event, I will need a letter from the athletic department at least two weeks before the event, and will add these points to your final exam. Educational Resource Center (ERC): The Boston University ERC provides peer tutoring services. It is located at 1 University Road (the Sargent Gym Building), Suite 150. The phone number is 37077, and the URL for their site is http://www.bu.edu/erc. Students with Documented Disabilities: If you have a disability that necessitates extra time for exams, or any other accommodations, you will need to give me a note from the BU office of Disabilities Services at least two weeks before the first midterm so that I can make arrangements. Policy on Cheating: Cheating on exams will result in a zero grade for that exam (and this grade will fully count in the final course grade calculation regardless of the grade on the final) and will be reported to the Dean’s office. In this regard it is important to remind everyone that students are responsible to know and understand the provisions of the CAS Academic Conduct Code. Statistical Background: While selective statistical concepts will be reviewed (and extended) in the context of regression analysis, students are expected to begin EC204 with a working knowledge of the material covered in EC203 (or the equivalent).

Course Outline Refresh of Probability and Statistics –

– – – – – – – s Chapter 14 – Advanced Panel Data Methods Chapter 15 – Instrumental Variables Estimation and Two Stage Least Squares (Time Permitting)

Stata Instruction for the Empirical Sequence (EC203-EC304)

In order to provide structured instruction in Stata, linked to the Boston University empirical sequences (EC203/204 and EC303/304), the TAs in these courses will be running a series of four sessions on using Stata, over the course of four weeks (beginning with the second week of classes). These sessions should be attended by all students currently registered in any of the EC203/204, EC303/304 classes. Each week there will be twelve sessions, taught at different times so that all students should be able to find a session that fits their schedule. These sessions will all cover the same material within each week and students should attend whatever session fits their schedule (you do not need to attend a session taught by the TA for your course). Your professor will go through additional Stata material in lectures which relates to the statistical and econometric material covered in the course, but the general architecture of the Stata program will only be taught in the context of these sessions and it is the responsibility of each student to attend these session, view the associated videos and work through the associated text materials. All readings are from the text “Getting Started with Stata” which can be accessed through the Stata program (go to Help, then PDF Documentation), and which will also be posted on your course Blackboard sites (there is a version for PCs and one for Macs). All video files are from the Stata YouTube channel, and may be accessed online by invoking Stata, clicking Help and then Resources, and then Video tutorials on using Stata, then on the StataCorp LP screen go to Playlists and then click on Economics, and you will then find the instructional videos to play. The TA sessions will go through the text material on Stata, and students should view the videos on their own either before or after the TA session. If you already took EC203 (or EC303) and attended these sessions during that semester you need not attend again, but you may find that it is a useful refresher. For those of you who

placed out of EC203 (or EC303) based on a different statistics class, you should definitely attend these sessions since you are still responsible for knowing the basics of Stata.

Schedule Week 1 (9/9-9/13) Chapter 1: Introducing Stata – sample session Chapter 2: The Stata user interface Chapter 4: Getting help Chapter 16: Saving and printing results by using log files Videos:

“Tour of the Stata Interface” “PDF documentation in Stata” “Quick Help in Stata”

Week 2 (9/16-9/20) Chapter 5: Opening and saving Stata datasets Chapter 6: Using the Data Editor Chapter 7: Using the Variables Manager Chapter 9: Labeling data Chapter 10: Listing data and basic command syntax Videos:

“Example data included with Stata” “Copy/past data from Excel into Stata” “Import Excel data into Stata”

Week 3 (9/23-9/27) Chapter 11: Creating new variables Chapter 12: Deleting variables and observations Chapter 14: Graphing data Chapter 15: Editing graphs Videos:

“Bar Graphs in Stata” “Box plots in Stata” “Basic scatterplots in Stata” “Histograms in Stata” “Pie charts in Stata”

Week 4 (9/30-10/4) Chapter 13: Using the Do-file Editor – automating Stata Chapter 16: Saving and printing results by using log files Videos:

“Stata’s Expression Builder”

INSTRUCTOR

DAY

TIME

SITE

Jimin Oh

Wednesday

12:20 – 1:10 PM

CAS B36

Jimin Oh

Monday

6:15 – 7:05 PM

PHO 202

Xuchao Gao

Monday

5:45 – 6:35 PM

CGS 321

Xuchao Gao

Friday

4:00 – 4:50 PM

CAS 116

Vikram Dixit Kumaraswarmy

Monday

4:40 – 5:30 PM

CAS 116

Vikram Dixit Kumaraswarmy

Friday

10:10 – 11:00 AM

CAS 226

Yiming Cao

Tuesday

12:30 – 1:20 PM

PHO 205

Yiming Cao

Tuesday

2:00 – 2:50 PM

CAS 220

Yiming Cao

Tuesday

3:35 – 4:25 PM

HAR 326

Guang Zhang

Thursday

4:00 – 4:50 PM

KCB 102

Liqun Zhuge

Wednesday

10:10 – 11:00 AM

CAS 218

Liqun Zhuge

Friday

9:05 – 9:55 AM

CAS B36

Students will have the following options for using Stata

1.

Purchase it for their own use on your own equipment.

Students may purchase the econometric software package Stata online at: https://www.stata.com/order/new/edu/gradplans/student-pricing/ You will need to purchase the version Stata/IC. You can get an annual license for $94, but I would recommend the perpetual license for $225 since Stata will be very useful for any type of analysis you might want to do in the future, either for an internship or a senior honors thesis. The software comes with extensive documentation in pdf format, including the introductory “Getting Started with Stata” manual which will be referred to in class. This is a good option, at a cost that is similar to that of a course textbook, and we recommend this option. 2.

Utilize the computers in the Library, which will have Stata available for use.

3. Utilize the computers in CAS 330 at 685 Commonwealth Avenue. The schedule is posted on the door as well as online at http://www.bu.edu/casit/computer-labs/ Card access can be requested. Students can visit CAS 331 between 8 am – 6 pm to be setup for access. The cards will give access between 8 am – 10 pm, 7 days a week, and we ask students to be aware of the room availability as it is also used for lectures and lab sections. The building doors are typically open until 11 pm most evenings. 4. There are a limited amount of seats available (30) for students to use a VDI portal, where a desktop with Stata installed will be available. This can be installed on any laptop or desktop or tablet. Installation instructions for Windows and Mac versions follow in this document (please note that the installation procedure needs to be followed once, and then the client should retain the server settings). Problems using Stata in the library, CAS 330 or with the VDI pool can be reported back to [email protected]. Additionally, students can stop by CAS 331 for help as well. Please note that faculty and TAs in the EC203-EC304 courses will not be available to help with options 2. – 4., rather any problems will need to addressed to CAS computing.

I. Horizon Client Instructions - Windows

NOTE: You must be connected to BU’s network via wired connection, wireless (BU 802.1x), or off-campus VPN (see document Setting Up and Using the VPN.docx) 1. Go to VMware’s website at the following link: https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info?slug=desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_horiz on_clients/4_0

2. Make sure you are selecting the version for Windows then click “Go to Downloads”

3. Click “Download”. Navigate to your downloads folder and launch the installer.

4. When you see the following window, select “I Agree & Install”

5. Wait a few moments for the installation to complete.

6. Restart your computer to complete the installation.

7. When you next log in, there should be an icon called VMware Horizon Client on your desktop that looks similar to the following. Double-click it.

8. The client will launch and you will see the following in the top left of the window that appears. Double click “Add Server”

9. In the window that appears, type in “casitvdi1.bu.edu” like in the following image then click “Connect”

10. In the next window that appears, type in your username and Kerberos password in the appropriate fields. Your username is the first part of your BU email address (for example cashelp instead of [email protected]). Then click “Login”

11. You will then see a screen similar to the following. Select the one appropriate to your class and double-click it to launch the virtual desktop.

If you are enrolled in a class using virtual desktop, they will be visible upon launching the client hereon forward. Only specific classes have access at this time. Please visit CAS 331 or email [email protected] with any problems, questions, or to request access to a class using this program. 12. IMPORTANT! Do NOT store documents on the virtual desktop! They will be deleted.

Please store files in your class folder, automatically mounted on the virtual desktop. The icon to access it should look similar to the above image. If you have issues accessing the folder please contact CAS IT.

II. Horizon Client Instructions - Mac

NOTE: You must be connected to BU’s network via wired connection, wireless (BU 802.1x), or offcampus VPN (see document Setting Up and Using the VPN.docx)

1. Go to VMware’s website at the following link: https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info?slug=desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_horiz on_clients/4_0

2. Make sure you are selecting the version for Mac, then click “Go to Downloads”

3. Select the latest version available to you, then click “Download”

4. Go to your download folder and launch the disk image (.dmg) file

5. When you see the following window, select “Agree”

6. You will then see the following window appear. Click and drag the “VMware Horizon Client” to the Applications folder shortcut

7. Once that is done, go to your Applications folder and launch the application. It will be titled “VMware Horizon Client”

8. If you are prompted for your computer password, enter it.

9. When you see the following window type in “casitvdi1.bu.edu” then click “Connect”

10. In the next window that appears, type in your username and Kerberos password in the appropriate fields. Your username is the first part of your BU email address (for example cashelp instead of [email protected]). Then click “Login”

11. You will see a screen similar to the following. Select the one appropriate t your class and ...