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Craig A. Depken, II


The University of Texas at Arlington

Craig A. Depken, II
Department of Economics
Box 19479 UT Arlington
Arlington, TX 76019
Office: 817.272.3290
Fax: 817.272.3145
Email: depken@uta.edu

ECON3318 Econometrics

Fall 2006

General Information

Course Syllabus
Office Hours
Text Book's Website

Lecture and In-Class Handout Materials

Lecture Notes (starting Fall 2006):
As of October 9, 2006, you will need the Adobe Shockwave plugin to access the notes:
Lecture Notes [Old Scans]
Topic 1: Introduction (Adobe format)
Topic 2: Statistics Review (Adobe Format)
Topic 3: Simple Regression Model (Adobe Format)
Topic 4: Properties of Estimators (Adobe Format)
Topic 5: Hypothesis Testing I (Adobe Format)
Topic 6: Regression Diagnostics (Adobe Format)
Topic 7: Multiple Regression (Adobe Format)
Topic 8: Hypothesis Testing II (Adobe Format)
Topic 9: Possible Problems in Regression (Adobe Format)
Topic 10: Functional Forms (Adobe Format)
Topic 11: Dummy Variables (Adobe Format)
Topic 12: Heteroscedasticity (Adobe Format)
Papers and Readings:
Richard Pollard paper referred to on first day of class
Discussions on Distributions
McCloskey and Ziliak on Economic Significance [Recommended]
Why Most Results are False [Recommended]
In Class Handouts:
Simple Regression Model (STATA Data File)
Functional Forms
Dummy Variables (STATA Data file)
Heteroscedasticity (STATA Data file)
Autocorrelation (STATA Data file)

Sample Data Sets and Class Handouts

To save STATA data files, right click and choose "save as". Some browsers will save the file with an html extension. If this occurs, you will have to use your Windows Explorer to change the file extension to .dta so that STATA will recognize the data set.

U.S. Wage Data (wages.dta)
U.S. Declared Natural Disasters (disasters.dta)
U.S. Work Stoppages (strikes.dta)
Higher Ed Spending (spending0203.dta)
U.S. Hurricane Damage (hurricane2.dta)
Internet Piracy (intpiracy.dta)
Gallup Polls of Presidential Approval (gallup.dta)
NBA Salary Disparity (hbaherfs.dta)
World Nuclear Bombs (bombs.dta)
Sample Demand Data (dddata.dta)
Higher Education Data (highered1.dta)
Stadium Construction Cost Data (stadiumconstruction.dta)

Exam Materials

Spring 2000 Test #1
Spring 2000 Test #2
Spring 1997 Final Exam
Spring 1999 Test #1
Spring 1999 Test #2
Spring 1999 Final Exam
Spring 2000 Final Exam

Homework Materials

As of October 9, 2006, you will need the Adobe Shockwave plugin to view suggested answers.

How to get STATA Small for Windows
Helpful STATA Links and Tips

STATA Introduction (avi movie) (wmv movie) (mov movie)

Homework #1 [Suggested Answers]
Homework #2 (spending0203.dta) (spending0203.csv) [AVI Animation]
Homework #3 (metro1.dta) (metro1.txt) (Data description) [AVI Animation] [WMV Animation]
Homework #4 (gdpdata.dta) (homedepot.dta) [Suggested Answers AVI Animation]
Homework #5(labordata1.dta) [Due Dec 5]
Homework #6(books.dta) [Due Dec 14]
Bonus Project (Adobe Format) (MSWord Format) (cars1906.dta) [Due Dec 15]

Term Project Information

Sample term paper (forthcoming in Applied Financial Economics Letters)
Entering Data in STATA movie (AVI format) (123mb and approximatley 30 minutes!)

Paper ideas (as they come to mind):
  • The relationship between economic freedom and economic disparity.
  • The relationship between gasoline prices and consumer confidence.
  • The relationship between Texas unemployment and Texas lotto sales.
  • How odds changes impact Texas lotto sales.
  • Smoking bans and liquor taxes in Texas
  • The impact of UTA enrollment, Arlington population, and team quality on UTA Football Attendance (I have some data)
  • The impact of Texas Rangers home games and team quality on Arlington liquor tax receipts
  • The relationship between unemployment in Fort Worth-Arlington and Dallas
  • The impact of Professional sporting events on hotel tax receipts
  • The relationship between consumer confidence and any number of possible variables

    Exam Outcomes

    Exam #1

    Here are the descriptive statistics of the first exam: 
        Variable |    Obs     Mean     Std. Dev.  Min  Max
-------------+-----------------------------------------
       exam1 |     33    74.45455  17.59455   29   96
    The mean is right where it is supposed to be. The standard deviation is a bit larger than usual because of a few outliers at the lower end of the distribution. The correlation between the percentage of points on the first homework and the percentage of points on the midterm: 0.297. Here is the distribution of letter grades for the first exam: 
    . tab grade

      grade |      Freq.     Percent        Cum.
------------+-----------------------------------
          A |         10       25.64       25.64
          B |          6       15.38       41.03
          C |          5       12.82       53.85
          D |          5       12.82       66.67
          F |          7       17.95       84.62
         NA |          6       15.38      100.00
------------+-----------------------------------
      Total |         39      100.00
    and a histogram of the grades:

    Exam #2

    The descriptive statistics of the second exam grades: 
    . sum exam2

    Variable |       Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+--------------------------------------------------------
       exam2 |        29    77.06897    9.826826         54         94

    and a histogram of the grades:

    Final Exam and Final Grade Statistics

    The descriptive statistics of the final exam grades: 
    . sum final finalper

    Variable |       Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+--------------------------------------------------------
       final |        29    109.6207     18.2491         59        137
    finalper |        29    73.08046    12.16606   39.33333   91.33334
    The distribution looked like:

    Here are the sample statistics for the final grades: 
    . sum final total totper totcurved totpercurved

    Variable |       Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+--------------------------------------------------------
       final |        29    109.6207     18.2491         59        137
       total |        29    441.6724     68.6841        261        542
      totper |        29    73.61207    11.44735       43.5   90.33334
   totcurved |        29    454.6724     68.6841        274        555
totpercurved |        29    75.77874    11.44735   45.66667       92.5
    The variable total is the total number of points earned in the course (out of 600). The variable totper is the percentage of points earned. The average percentage of points earned was 73.62 without additional adjustment. I added two points to the percentage of points earned and about 13 points to the total points earned in the course. The final letter grades were distributed as follows: 
    . tab lettergrade

lettergrade |      Freq.     Percent        Cum.
------------+-----------------------------------
          A |          5       17.24       17.24
          B |          9       31.03       48.28
          C |          8       27.59       75.86
          D |          5       17.24       93.10
          F |          2        6.90      100.00
------------+-----------------------------------
      Total |         29      100.00

    Substitute Textbooks

    1. Undergraduate Econometrics, first edition, Hill, Grifiths and Judge
    2. Introduction to Econometrics, second edition, Maddala
    3. Econometric Models and Economic Forecasts, Pindych and Rubenfeld
    4. Basic Econometrics, second edition, Damodar N. Gujariati

    I recommend the Hill, Grifiths, and Judge book because it is relatively simple to read and you should be able to get cheap first editions from Amazon.com or E-bay or Half.com. I do not recommend paying monopolistic prices for your textbooks. The difference between the price of a new HGJ book and a used first edition will more than offset the price of STATA Small.

    Note: links that return you to this page refer to documents not yet posted.