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. University of Colorado -- Boulder Department of Economics Economics 3818 Prof. Jeffrey S. Zax Syllabus and Schedule 15 January 2002 Welcome. I am Prof. Jeffrey S. Zax. This is Economics 3818, Introduction to Statistics With Computer Applications. This class will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 :00 a.m. until 12:15 p.m. throughout the semester in Clare Small Arts and Sciences 207. Sergey Makarevich will conduct three recitation sessions each week: Monday l:00p.m. -l:50p.m. in Economics 13, Wednesday 3:00p.m.-3:50p.m. in Duane Physics and Astrophysics G1B39, and Thursday 8:00a.m.-8:50a.m. in Humanities Building 245 . I will hold regular office hours between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays in my office, Economics 111. Appointments can be made for meetings at other times, if these are inconvenient. In particular, any student eligible for and needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a disability should arrange to meet with me immediately. The purpose of this course is to establish basic competency in statistical analysis. This includes familiarity with the formal properties of the covariance, the correlation coefficient, essential probability distributions, hypothesis tests, confidence intervals and regression analysis. It also includes an intuitive understanding of the value of these properties, as well as of the appropriate use of numerical data as evidence. Lastly, it includes some capacity to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate statistical arguments. The material to be mastered in this class is contained in the lectures and recitations, the assigned textbook, Statistics for Economics: An Intuitive Approach by Alan S. Caniglia, problem sets and computer exercises. The material on summations in Caniglia's Chapter 2 is prerequisite for this course. Performance in this class will be judged on the basis of several instruments. The final examination will be worth 150 points. Two midterm examinations, worth a total of 130 points, will take place on 19 February and 21 March, unless class progress deviates from my current expectations. Problem sets or computer exercises worth 120 points, in total, will be assigned for most, if not all recitations. Solutions to the midterm examinations, problem sets and computer exercises will be available soon after they are due, hopefully via WebCT. The course as a whole is valued at 400 points. The score attained by each student, evaluated relative to those of other students in the class and to the score which would be attained by an intelligent student of introductory statistics, will determine final letter grades. This course has the following tentative schedule, referencing chapters in the Caniglia textbook: - 1- .. Introduction 15 January Course logistics, prerequisites, philosophy. Review of the summation operator. Chapters 2, 3 17, 22 January Descriptive statistics: measures of central tendency and dispersion. Chapter 4 24 , 29 January The relationships between populations and samples. Chapter 5 31 January, 5 February Basic probability concepts, the addition rule , the multiplication rule, and Bayes' Theorem. Chapter 6 7, 12, 14 February Essential univariate probability distributions, especially the binomial, normal and t distributions. Midterm examination 19 February 65 points Chapter 7 21, 26, 28 February The expectation operator. Chapter 8 5, 7, 12 March Joint probability distributions, covariance and correlation, functions of random variables. Chapter 9 14, 19 March Applications of chapter 8: properties of the sample average. Midterm examination 21 March 65 points Chapter 10 2, 4 April Statistical properties of estimators. Chapter 11 9, 11 April Confidence intervals. Chapter 12 16, 18 April Hypothesis tests. Chapter 13 23, 25 April The two-variable regression model. Chapter 14 30 April, 2 May The multi-variate regression model. Final Examination 7 May, 1:30p.m.-4:00p.m. 150 points -2-