Boston UniversityUndergraduate

Economics Association

4th MAG Meeting

Quantitative analysis

� Overview of main concepts:

� Some Theory:

� Statistical Software:

� R

� JMP

� STATA

� SAS

Overview of main concepts

� What is statistics?

� Statistics can be though of as a branch of mathematics, though is better defined as a separate discipline. Statistics is the since of extracting useful information from data.

� Statistical Modeling

� Statistical modeling is the application of statistical principals to problems that use data to find solutions. For example I believe that there is a way to understand the overall effectiveness of a new drug by testing it and collecting data. (Nondeterministic)

� Econometrics

� Similarly I can ask questions regarding economic phenomena or economic policies, and believe that data can help me understand the economy, or the implications of a new policy. (Predictions, Confirmations)

Some Theory

� Parametric Statistical Modeling

� Sometimes it is reasonable to assume that the exists some parameter which is constant and can be estimated using some data. For example we may believe there there is a specific rate at which wages increase with experience, with reasonable variations across the population.

� A very useful and versatile type of a statistical models is called Linear Models.

� This basically means that you believe the relationship between your variables is linear. Y=mX+b+e

Some Theory

� Because you believe there exist some parameter, but you don’t know it, you need to estimate it using data. (This is the reason why it is important that your data is valid and representative of the population)

� Types of estimation

� Point estimation vs. interval estimation.

� Principals of estimation

� Maximum Likelihood principal

� Regression analysis (minimization)

� Estimation methods

� OLS

Statistical Software

� We have computers to calculate what we need.

� Statistical software are programs that have a lot of functionality required to do statistical modeling, and statistical analysis.

� Regression analysis is probably the most whitely used functionality, so it can be found in every program.

� R, JMP, STATA, SAS, Excel….

� Simplicity, Accessibility, Convenience.

� If you haven’t used anything, begin with JMP or R.

Statistical Software

� Interface

� GUI

� Command Based

� Programming

� Objects and Data types

� Importing Data

� Editing Data

� Exporting Data

� Analysis

� Reading the output

� Graphics

Boston UniversityUndergraduate Economics Association

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