Subject Guide 2019 S2 PDF

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ECONQuantitative Methods1- QMSUBJECT GUIDESemester 2, 2019Department of EconomicsFaculty of Business and EconomicsSubject Guide1 IntroductionWelcome to QM1. This subject covers core concepts which underpin quantitative analysis in economics and commerce. It provides a foundation for second-year quan...

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ECON10005 Quantitative Methods1- QM1

SUBJECT GUIDE

Semester 2, 2019

Department of Economics Faculty of Business and Economics

ECON10005 Quantitative Methods 1

Semester 2, 2019

Subject Guide 1

Introduction

Welcome to QM1. This subject covers core concepts which underpin quantitative analysis in economics and commerce. It provides a foundation for second-year quantitative subjects, and prerequisite information for other subjects in a commerce degree. The prerequisite for the subject is VCE Mathematical Methods (CAS), or equivalent. It is assumed that students have learned concepts of algebra, differential calculus, probability and probability distributions. QM1 aims to teach students the basic quantitative methods used in modern organisations and to provide a foundation for future study in both econometrics and quantitative methods more broadly. The topics covered are: -

Descriptive statistical measures, including location and dispersion and graphical methods Probability Random variables and expected values Sampling distributions Estimation and hypothesis testing Regression and correlation

Excel is used to illustrate applications in accounting, economics, finance, management and marketing. After completing these topics, students should be able to identify and apply suitable statistical techniques for describing data and making inferences from those data. Also, by studying the basic principles of estimation and hypothesis testing, they will acquire the foundation to study more advanced tools used for investigating relationships between important variables in economics, finance, accounting, marketing and management. At a broader level, studying this subject will give you an appreciation of the analysis behind research conclusions that are reported in the media and in print, and the ability to critically evaluate those conclusions. For a formal statement of the subject, please refer to the handbook link: https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/2019/subjects/econ10005

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ECON10005 Quantitative Methods 1

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Semester 2, 2019

Academic Staff Contact Details

Subject Coordinator Dr Wasana Karunarathne Office: Room 335, FBE Building Tel: 8344 4866 Email: [email protected] QM1 Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Friday 2-4PM All the emails relevant to this subject must be sent to the QM1 email above.

Tutor Contact Details Please check the subject’s LMS page for consultation times and for tutor contact details.

Email Protocol Please note the following important guidelines: • We are only able to respond to student emails coming from a University email address. • Emails from non-University email addresses may be filtered by the University’s spam filter, which means that we may not receive your email. • All correspondence relating to this subject will only be sent to your University email address. Note that you must first activate your University email address before you can send or receive emails at that address. You can activate your email account at this link: http://accounts.unimelb.edu.au/ While academic staff endeavour to address queries received via email, it is more appropriate to resolve substantive questions during classes or normal consultation hours. With this in mind, we encourage students to attend all lectures and tutorials and to familiarise themselves with the consultation hours that will be posted on the LMS.

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Lectures

Attend: one of the 1-hour lectures on Tuesday at 1pm (David P. Derham Theatre) or 2.15pm (Copland Theatre) and the respective 1-hour lectures on Thursday at 1pm (David P. Derham Theatre) or 3.15pm (Copland Theatre). 3

ECON10005 Quantitative Methods 1

Semester 2, 2019

You are expected to be seated and quiet in time for the lecture commencement. Please be mindful of your fellow students. If for any reason you arrive late then please enter the lecture theatre causing as little disruption as possible. Lectures will be recorded and made available on the LMS. Lecture recording is not intended as a replacement for lecture attendance, but rather as a resource for revision purposes. Occasionally lecture recording may fail, in which case no recording will be available.

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Tutorials

Tutorials commence in Week 1 of the semester. From week 2, each tutorial will cover the content from lectures in the previous week. Students are all expected to attend a one hour tutorial each week. The tutorials are a fundamental component of the subject and are designed to help you prepare for completing the assignments and taking the final exam. Tutorial registration is available at http://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/class-registration It is each student’s responsibility to ensure their registrations produce a clash-free timetable. Late enrolment into tutorials is handled by Stop 1. A small amount preparation work will be posted on the LMS each week that must be completed before the tutorial of the following week. There will also be an on-line quiz to answer following the completion of this work. Details of tutorial assessment tasks can be found in Section 6.2.

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Course Material

In QM1, students are provided with a variety of resources to help them with their learning. Those include: • Lecture notes • Weekly online Learning Modules (highly recommended as previous cohorts found that consistent engagement with these material helped them understanding and revising the concepts and also performance in the subject) • Weekly reading (available through LMS) • Tutorials Depending on students’ prior knowledge and skill levels, students are expected to complete these reading and review tasks and exercises each week. Lecture material will be posted on the LMS each week along with readings from the relevant chapter of the textbook provided via the LMS. 4

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Semester 2, 2019

Assessment

6.1

Overview

The assessment for the subject comprises the following: Assessment Task Weight Length

6.2

Due Date

Weekly online quizzes and Tutorial Attendance Mid Test 1 (in Wilson Hall)

10%

Monday 9am

7.5%

45 Minutes

Friday 30 August

Mid Test 2 (in Wilson Hall)

7.5%

45 Minutes

Friday 27 Sept

Assignment 1

7.5%

Week 6

Assignment 2

7.5%

Week 10

Final Exam

60%

2 Hours

Exam Period

Weekly online tasks and tutorial attendance

For each tutorial from week 2, 1 mark will be available for successfully completing the pre-tutorial online tasks and tutorial attendance. To obtain this, students are required to complete a pre-tutorial task posted on the LMS the preceding week, answer the online quiz based on this work, and attend their tutorial each week. A score of at least 50% on the quiz plus attendance at the tutorial of the following week is required to obtain the tutorial participation mark. Failure to fulfil either of these two components in a given week will result in 0 marks for that week. If you have medical or other legitimate reasons for being unable to attend your tutorial, it is possible on a maximum of three weeks to either • attend a different tutorial and notify the tutor of your presence to have attendance recorded; or • apply to have the mark transferred to the final exam. (Details of the application procedure will be advised on the LMS.)

6.3

Mid-semester tests

There are two mid semester tests for this subject. • Test 1: hold in week 5 in Wilson Hall (Friday 30 August, between 1-5pm). This 45 minute test covers material discussed in the first 3 weeks of lectures and tutorials. • Test 2: hold in week 9 in Wilson Hall (Wilson Hall), Friday 27 September, between 1pm-5pm). The test covers material discussed in lectures and tutorials until week 7.

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ECON10005 Quantitative Methods 1

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Further information will be provided closer to the time of the tests. It is expected that students are available for both of these tests. Students who cannot attend any of the tests due to a valid reasons can apply for special consideration following the online special consideration process. Teaching staff cannot approve such special consideration requests. http://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/special

6.4

The assignments

You are encouraged to work on the assignments in groups of up to but no more than four students and to submit a single electronic copy as a group. All members of a group submitting a single assignment must belong to the same tutorial and all members of the group will be given the same mark. Students may choose to work and hand in an assignment on their own if they wish. It is possible that due dates for one or more of the assignments will also be due dates for work in another subject or subjects. Be mindful of this. The assignment questions will be made available 14 days in advance of the due date. QM1 has a strict submission policy, late submissions are NOT accepted. Assignments will be released to students in advance giving them enough time for completion. In order to give students efficient feedback, students will not be given any extensions to complete their assignments. Students who have issues submitting their assignment on time due to valid reasons can apply for special consideration to get their marks transferred to the final exam: http://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/special

6.5

Final Exam

The final exam accounts for 60% of your final mark. All topics are examinable and there will be little covered in tutorials and assignments which will not be examined. You will not be examined on what formulas or commands to use in Excel, but you may be examined on the interpretation of output generated in Excel. It is necessary to pass the final exam (a mark greater than or equal to 50%) to pass the subject. The Faculty requires that you are available for the entire examination period at the end of semester. Supplementary exams will not be provided in cases of absence during the examination period, unless the absence is due to serious illness or other serious circumstances. See the Special Consideration web-site for more information: http://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/special The exam will involve some calculations and university policy is that only Casio FX82 (any suffix) calculators are permitted.

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Further Assistance

If you need assistance during the semester, you have several options: 6

ECON10005 Quantitative Methods 1

7.1

Semester 2, 2019

Tutor Consultations

Tutors will conduct consultation times each week beginning in Week 2 of the semester. Details will be placed on the LMS when they are available.

7.2

Online Discussion Board

A discussion board moderated by tutors will be available for students via LMS. This platform will facilitate students to (i) ask questions online (ii) respond to questions asked by their fellow students. It can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The moderator will attempt to moderate or answer students questions within 24 hours (weekdays only). To ensure that all students have a fair and equal opportunity to have their questions answered, questions relating to assessment (e.g. assignments and the final exam) submitted less than 24 hours before the assessment deadline will not be answered. Your questions and the answers can (usually) be accessed by all students in your class, allowing everyone to benefit from the question and answer. Importantly, your identity will not be revealed to other students. Notice that this means, that even if you don’t want to ask a question, you can still view existing questions and answers. Note that the discussion board is not designed to replace attendance at tutorials or your own reading and preparation, but rather to complement these. If questions can be answered by referring to the prescribed readings then this will typically be the response. Please also note that detailed answers for assignments will not be provided through the discussion board. Solutions to assignments are provided elsewhere. If you do not understand concepts generally then please attend a consultation time. Finally, your tutors will not answer duplicate questions. Please view existing questions and answers before posting a new question.

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Academic Honesty Referencing

All sources used for a written piece of assessment must be referenced, using either the APA system or Harvard system of referencing. This is to acknowledge that your material is not based entirely on your own ideas, but is based, in part, on the ideas, information, and evidence of others. This is desirable as you are attending University in order to learn from others. It is important that all material you present for assessment is referenced correctly. Material that has not been referenced correctly may be considered to be plagiarised, and as such may be penalised. We will also look for evidence that material included in the bibliography has been used in the assignment. Including references that have not been used may also result in your assignment being penalised.

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ECON10005 Quantitative Methods 1

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Semester 2, 2019

Plagiarism, Collusion, and Other Forms of Cheating

Presenting material from other sources without full acknowledgement (referred to as plagiarism) is heavily penalised. Penalties for plagiarism can include a mark of zero for the piece of assessment or a fail grade for the subject. Plagiarism is the presentation by a student of an assignment identified as his or her own work even though it has been copied in whole or in part from another student’s work, or from any other source (e.g. published books, web-based materials or periodicals), without due acknowledgement in the text. Collusion is the presentation by a student of an assignment as his or her own work when it is, in fact, the result (in whole or in part) of unauthorised collaboration with another person or persons. Both the student presenting the assignment and the student(s) willingly supplying unauthorised material are considered participants in the act of academic misconduct. More broadly, academic integrity is the value that the University of Melbourne values over all others. The penalties for all forms of cheating can, and sadly sometimes do, extend as far as expulsion from the University. Cheating almost always arises as an error of judgement made in a moment of stress. If you find yourself in such a situation just remember that the consequences of being caught cheating far outweigh any potential benefits, so please do not make that mistake. See http://academichonesty.unimelb.edu.au/ for more information.

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