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ECON20003
Quantitative Methods
Subject Outline Introduction Welcome to ECON20003, Quantitative Methods 2 (QM2). Having solid quantitative problem- solving skills is essential for future careers in commerce. Learning these skills can be challenging, but they are becoming crucial for success in business and economics. QM2 should not be a hard subject, but it does require the mastery of analytic skills, and thus it necessitates your constant attention throughout the semester. Subject Overview and Aims The overall aim of this subject is to help you become proficient in the use of quantitative techniques essential for analysis in business and economics. A wide range of skills will be covered during the semester. On successful completion of the subject, you should be able to: (a) Identify the correct technique to solve a particular quantitative problem, (b) Implement each technique, and (c) Interpret the results from these techniques. You will use the skills you develop in QM2 in the business, economics, finance, marketing, and management subjects you study during the remainder of your time at the University of Melbourne, and, most importantly, later in the workplace.
Learning Outcomes Learning Outcomes and Generic Skills To view the subject objectives and the generic skills you will develop through successful completion of this subject Awareness Issues At a broader level, studying this subject will increase your awareness and the breadth of questions that are investigated within business and economics, the wide range of statistical information that is publicly available, and the future subjects you can take to learn more quantitative techniques. 3 Eligibility and Requirements To view the eligibility and requirements, including prerequisites, corequisites, recommended background knowledge and core participation requirements for this subject, please see the University Handbook:
Email Protocol Please note that we are only able to respond to student emails coming from a University email address. Please do not use personal email addresses such as Yahoo, Hotmail or even business email addresses. Emails from non-University email addresses may be filtered by the University’s spam filter, which means that we may not receive your email. All correspondence relating to this subject will only be sent to your University email address. Note that you must first activate your University email address before you can send or receive emails at that address. While academic staff endeavour to address queries received via email, it is more appropriate to resolve substantive questions during the tutorials and/or via the Ed Discussion Board. With this in mind, we encourage students to attend all lectures and tutorials and to follow the Ed Discussion Board.
4 Lectures Lecture Times and Venues ECON20003 is a dual delivery subject. There are two one-hour lectures a week. Tuesday 15:15 – 16:15 (The Spot-B01 - Copland Theatre) Wednesday 12:00 – 13:00 (The Spot-B01 - Copland Theatre)
Lecture Schedule Week Lecture (Date) Topic Required Reading from W 2nd ed. & S 8th ed. 1 1 (26 July)
2 (27 July) Introduction and General Information about Quantitative Methods 2 (QM2) Estimation and Hypothesis Testing W: Ch 1-2, § 3.1-3.6, 3.8- 3.9 S: § 8.3, 9.3-9.4, 10.1- 10.3, 10.5, 12.1-12.4 2 3 (2 August)
4 (3 August) Desirable Properties of Point Estimators Parametric and Nonparametric Techniques The Assumption of Normality W: 3.7 S: § 10.1, Ch 20 Introduction 3 5 (9 August)
6 (10 August) Comparing Two Population Means or Central Locations with Parametric and Nonparametric Techniques S: § 11.1-11.3, 13.1-13.2, 20.1-20.2 4 7 (16 August)
8 (17 August) The Chi-Square, t and F Distributions Inferences about One or Two Population Variances Inferences about One or Two Population Proportions W: § 3.5 S: § 9.5, 10.4, 11.4, 12.6, 13.3, 14.1-14.2 Assignment 1 due in by 10am on Monday 22 August
5 5 9 (23 August)
10 (24 August) Comparing Several Population Means with One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) Based on Independent Samples and Randomised Blocks S: § 15.1, 15.3-15.4, 20.3 Mid-semester online test from 8am 29 August till 10am 31 August 6 11 (30 August)
12 (31 August) Chi-Square Tests for the Analysis of Frequencies Measures of Association W: § 3.4 S: § 5.4, 16.1-16.2, 16.4, 17.6 7 13 (6 September)
16 (14 September) General F-test Omitted and Irrelevant Variables Alternative Functional Forms Multicollinearity W: § 6.6, 6.8, 7.1-7.3 S: § 17.5, 17.7, 18.1-18.2, 19.1 Assignment 2 due in by 10am on Monday 19 September 9 17 (20 September)
18 (21 September) Heteroskedasticity Using the Sample Regression Equation Dummy Independent Variables in Regression Models W: § 5.3, 6.7, 8.1-8.2, 9.1- 9.3 S: § 17.5, 17.7, 18.3, 19.2-19.3 Mid-semester break from Friday 23 September to Sunday 2 October 10 19 (4 October)
22 (12 October) Cross-Sectional vs. Time-Series Data Regression Analysis with Time Series Data Autocorrelation W: § 10.1-10.3, 11.1-11.2, 11.4 S: § 4.2, 18.4 6 Assignment 3 due in by 10am on Monday 17 October 12 23 (18 October)
24 (19 October) Stationary and Non-Stationary Processes Spurious Regression Dickey-Fuller Unit Root Tests W: § 12.1-12.3
Lecture Slides Lecture slides will be made available on LMS prior to each lecture. Students are encouraged to read the slides and the relevant parts in the prescribed and/or the recommended textbook before attending or watching each lecture. Be prepared to take some notes in lectures, as some important explanations of the material might not be detailed on the slides. Recorded Lectures The lectures will be live-streamed Every teaching week of the semester the two one-hour lectures will be recorded and made available on LMS right after the lectures, granted that some technical problem does not prevent IT to do so. You can access the recorded lectures by clicking on the Lecture Recordings (or similar) menu item on the LMS page for this subject.
Tutorials Tutorials commence in the first week of semester (week beginning Monday 25 July). Tutorial dates, times and locations can be found on the University timetable. Enrolling in Tutorials Students should enrol in tutorials via the Student Portal. After subject registration, students are allocated to available classes. It is the students’ responsibility to ensure their registrations produce a clash-free timetable. A change to your allocated tutorial time can only be made if there is space in alternative tutorials. The tutors and the lecturer cannot help students with tutorial changes. Late enrolment into tutorials is handled by STOP 1.
Tutorial Classes The tutorials are a fundamental component of the subject. They are designed to practice skills covered during lectures in the previous week. This semester some of the tutorial classes will be on campus in various computer labs while others will be online (Zoom) in real time. For each tutorial students can download a detailed tutorial handout from the subject website the previous week after the second lecture, i.e. Wednesday 1pm. Students can also watch a video on the subject website before each tutorial on how to use the R / RStudio software. Every tutorial consists of two components. PART A: Tutorial questions and exercises to be completed manually and/or with R / RStudio. Detailed explanations, instructions and solutions are provided in the tutorial handout to assist students to do these exercises in their own pace. Students are expected to read the tutorial handout, to watch the corresponding video on R / RStudio and to attempt the illustrative exercises before the tutorial class, so that they can ask relevant questions and help if needed during their Zoom tutorials. In addition, the tutors might discuss some additional practice exercises to highlight the crucial points of the week. PART B: Homework exercises and questions for assessment. They are similar to the Part A exercises but they are organized as weekly Canvas Quizzes. Students need to submit their answers to these exercises in the relevant Canvas Homework Quiz by 10am on Wednesday of the next teaching week. They can do so via the submission link that opens after the first lecture, i.e., at 5pm on Tuesday. For example, the tutorial 1 HW is due by 10am August 3 and the submission link is available from 5pm July 26. The answer for each exercise must be typed in the corresponding box available in the Quiz. If an exercise requires R, the relevant R / RStudio script and printout must be inserted in the same Quiz box below the answer. Please note that handwritten scanned answers and uploaded doc, docx, pdf, jpeg etc. files are not accepted. There will be 11 tutorial homeworks on weeks 1-11. The solution(s) for the week 1 homework exercise(s) is (are) to be submitted by 10am on Wednesday in week 2, the solution(s) for the week 2 homework exercise(s) is (are) to be submitted by 10am on Wednesday in week 3, …, the solution(s) for the week 11 homework exercise(s) is (are) to be submitted by 10am on Wednesday in week 12. Private Tutoring Services The Faculty has become increasingly concerned about the existence of a number of private tutoring services operating in Melbourne that heavily target University of Melbourne students enrolled in FBE subjects. 8 Students are urged to show caution and exercise their judgement if they are considering using any of these services, and to please take note of the following: Any claim by any of these businesses that they have a “special” or “collaborative” or “partnership” style relationship with the University or Faculty is false and misleading. Any claim by a private tutoring service that they are in possession of, or can supply you with, forthcoming University exam or assignment questions or “insider” or “exclusive” information is also false and misleading. The University has no relationship whatsoever with any of these services and takes these claims very seriously as they threaten to damage the University’s reputation and undermine its independence. Note also, that it is inappropriate for students to provide course materials (including University curricula, reading materials, lecture notes, tutorial handouts, exam and assignment questions and answers) to operators of these businesses for the purposes of allowing them to conduct commercial tutoring activities, or to any other businesses and websites. Doing so may amount to misconduct and will be taken seriously. Those materials contain intellectual property owned or controlled by the University. We encourage you to bring to the attention of Faculty staff any behaviour or activity that is not aligned with University expectations or policy as outlined above.