Prof John Van Reenen 32L.2.06A and Prof Mark Schankerman 32L.4.30

This course is available on the MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics and MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics (2 Year Programme). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Students are expected to take EC400 in September and achieve the requisite standard. 

A knowledge is expected of econometric theory and applied econometrics corresponding to Principles of Econometrics or Methods of Economic Investigation. Students must be prepared to read journal articles with a difficult mathematical and statistical content.

The course will focus on going through modern quantitative papers which demonstrate the application of econometric techniques to modelling the behaviour of individual economic agents (households and firms) and economies. The first half of the course will focus on techniques to understand causal inference and treatment effects as well as the differences in income across nations. The second half of the course will focus on papers in the empirical literature on productivity, innovation and intellectual property rights, illustrating the challenges of identification in both structural and reduced form models.  The lectures will cover a wide range of topics in applied micro-econometrics with a view to illustrating the interplay between models, data and methods.

20 hours of lectures and 8 hours of seminars in the MT. 20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT. 2 hours of seminars in the ST.

Articles in economic journals will be assigned at the start of Michaelmas and Lent terms. The course will also draw on methodological topics covered in Wooldridge, Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data (2nd edition, 2010), and Angrist and Pischke, Mostly Harmless Econometrics (2009).

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.