Econometrics: weeks 6-8 (March 11th to April 7th)

In weeks 3-5 we:

• Explained Lessons 3.1 (Estimation) and 3.2 (Inference)
• Reviewed the practical materials: Exercise sheet #1, Weight vs. age for a sample of children and CEO compensation dataset (Wooldridge's ceosal2 dataset)

The goals for weeks 6-8 are:

• Finish working with the CEO compensation dataset by fitting a log-linear model. We will see how this helps when modeling nonnormal data
• Explaining Lesson 4.1 Discrete and semi-continuous regressors. Polynomial terms
• Modeling Wooldridge's "Beauty" dataset
• Solving part of the Exercise sheet #2 and Many least squares calculations done (almost) by hand 
• Doing a partial exam (final date: April 10th)

Activities:

• Please download again Lesson 3.2 (Inference) as I updated the pdf file.
• Solve the Exercise sheet #2
• Fit a regression model to explain the variables "liver", "heart" and "deaths" as a function of "alcohol" in Wooldridge's wine dataset, and test for compliance with standard hypotheses.

The wine dataset includes data reported in a New York Times article, December 28, 1994. The dependent variables deaths, heart, and liver can be each regressed against alcohol as nice simple regression examples. The conventional wisdom is that wine is good for the heart but not for the liver, something that these regressions seem to confirm.

Warning

I will not be able to attend to next April 11th class due to a professional meeting. We will discuss the best way to compensate for the time lost.


Graded personal homework

Send an e-mail to this address (last day for delivery: Friday April 5th). This message should:

• Summarize the results of previous activities
• Describe any doubts about the topics explained in class 
• Write a 400 words approx. summary of your main conclusions after modeling Wooldridge's wine dataset. Please, this time try to follow the guidelines in Givens, G.H. and J.A. Hoeting (2002). Comunicating Statistical Results.

This e-mail will be assessed as part of the "active participation" item (10% of final grade). You can facilitate processing these e-mails by complying with the deadline and delivery procedure (please use this email address). I would also help if all the text is included in the body of the message body, avoiding attachments whenever possible.