AØKK08106U Seminar: Advanced Microeconometrics

Volume 2015/2016
Education

MSc of Economics
The seminar is primary for students at the MSc of Economics

Content

This seminar is intended for students following the course Advanced Microeconometrics in order to supplement the course with hands-on experience in programming and estimating advanced microeconometric models. Taken in conjunction with the course, the students will be well prepared to conduct empirical research using modern tools that are also transferable and becoming increasingly used and demanded outside of academia. This seminar replaces the previous option of writing a term paper in connection with the Advanced Microeconometrics course.

The course in Advanced Microeconometrics provides the necessary training in analyzing microeconometric problems and basic programming of estimators using MATLAB. Therefore, most of the lectures and exercise classes in Advanced Microeconometrics need to be completed before the econometric analysis for the seminar can be conducted – the scheduling of the class and the seminar will take this into account.

Learning Outcome
  • Pose a focused economic research question (inspired, for example, by an already published paper)
  • Find data that can be used to answer the question
  • Estimate relevant models and test hypotheses using methods discussed in the course
  • Program the estimators applied in the paper using MATLAB
  • Investigate the properties of the estimators and tests using Monte Carlo techniques
  • Write a short and focused seminar paper
  • Make an oral presentation of the economic problem, econometric model and the actual implementation in MATLAB
  • Discuss an empirical strategy as opponent
  • Jeffrey Wooldridge (2010), "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data", Second Edition, MIT Press. chapters 10-17, 19 and 21.

B.Sc. of Economics
Pre-requisites are Econometrics A-C
The initial meeting for the seminar takes place at the same time as the first lecture of the course Advanced Microeconometrics (see the course description for date and time for this course).

Some consulting meetings at the same time as the lecturs of the course Advanced Microeconometrics in November/December can be possible. Exact dates is decided and informed by the teacher during the semester.

The students are required to e-mail the lecturer a project description in the beginning of November and hand-in their final seminar paper in the beginning of December. About the 10 and 11 December 2015, a workshop will be held. At the workshop, students present their seminar paper in front of the class and each group will be assigned to be opponent to another group in order to facilitate a discussion of the empirical strategy.

For the coding phase and – in particular – for bug fixing, it is strongly encouraged that students form groups of 2-3 persons. It is possible to freely choose the topic and estimation method within microeconometrics. However, as the projects in practice are initiated at a fairly late stage of the semester and since the coding is likely to be time-consuming, it is recommended to focus on replicating (and extending) the analysis of an existing paper rather than setting up a new research question. Data can often be found accompanying published papers on the website of the authors or the journal. The focus of the opponents will be to discuss the empirical strategy and, ideally, how to improve it.

It is usually the case that projects are initiated in the beginning of November, so the workload is high from mid-November to mid-December.

More information about seminars at
https:/​/​intranet.ku.dk/​economics_ma/​study_programme/​seminars/​Pages/​default.aspx
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Exam
  • 0,6
  • Project work
  • 200
  • Seminar
  • 6
  • Total
  • 206,6
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
Oral examination, 35 min under invigilation
A written seminar paper and a 25 minuts oral presentation for the others participans at the seminar and 10 minuts discussion.

The seminar paper is handed-in in the beginning of December. A week later (around mid-December), a seminar workshop is arranged.
Exam registration requirements

Attendance on the seminar. The mandatory commitment paper and seminar paper have been handed in at deadline.

Aid
All aids allowed

Al aids for the written seminarpaper.

For the oral presentation: Informed by the teacher.

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
up to 20 % censorship at the seminarpaper
Exam period

The seminar paper is handed-in in the beginning of December. Exact dates is decided and informed by the teacher during the semester.

Re-exam

As ordinary.

Criteria for exam assesment

The student must in a satisfactory way demonstrate that he/she has mastered the learning outcome of the course.