EC486      One Unit
Econometric Methods

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

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This course aims to present the theory and practice of empirical research in economics. Beyond the theory, the course will put a substantial amount of effort in having the students work with Stata and other econometric software in analysing actual data sets, reproducing and criticising results in previous work and learning the actual practice of econometrics as undertaken by the best applied economists, both in general (in MT) and specifically within the IO field (in the LT). Topics include: (MT) Ordinary Least Squares, hypothesis testing, omitted and added variables, measurement error, the role of controls, and functional form. Panel data, fixed and random effects. Instrumental Variables. The emphasis of this part is on the identification of causal effects, and applications in microeconomics (Labour Economics, Public Policy, IO, etc) are presented throughout. In LT you will learn the applications of many of these techniques to econometric questions in Industrial Organization, organizational economics and management.

2 hours of seminars in the Spring Term.
20 hours of seminars and 20 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.
20 hours of lectures and 18 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.

Students are required to complete answers to problem sets on a week by week basis.

WT: James H. Stock and Mark W. Watson, Introduction to Econometrics; reading lists of chapters and journal articles will be supplied at the start of each term.

Exam (65%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period

Data analysis (35%)