Temple University

Department of Economics

Economics 615 Econometrics I

Fall 1997

Required Text:

Econometric Analysis, 3rd Ed., William H. Greene, Prentice-Hall, 1997.

Recommended Text:

Basic Econometrics, 3rd Ed., Damodar Gujarati, McGraw-Hill, 1995.

Gujarati's book is a nice undergraduate treatment of econometrics. It is short on theory and has many numerical examples; as such it makes good back ground reading for Greene.

Electronic Texts:

The syllabus has many links to the lecture notes which I have written over the years. The lecture notes are meant to be read along with the text for the course. In addition I have links to a set of lecture notes prepared by Douglas J. Miller (Ph.D., Berkeley, 1994), Assistant Professor of Economics, Iowa State University. His excellent lecture notes are more advanced than my own.

Rules of the Game: Attendance is at your discretion, but I have not met anyone who can do well in graduate school without a near religious commitment to the course of study. You should read the assignments before coming to class. This applies even if you feel that we are way behind schedule. As in all of your classes, the subject is cumulative. Sometimes an earlier discussion will become clearer by having read material which comes after it. Our time in class is brief. To make the most of that class time you should write out your questions and bring them with you; you should quiz yourself on what you have read; you should get together in study groups and quiz one another.

Course Grade Determination:

Homework 25%

Midterm 25%

Final 25%

Paper 25%

To discourage late homework, it is accepted at only 50% of the lowest score earned by those who turned it in on time. You will note in the syllabus that there are some interim products which must be produced as part of your paper. If you do not submit the interim products then I will not accept the paper. A late paper will automatically receive a grade no higher than a 90%. The final is cumulative and mandatory. The date is included in the syllabus, make your travel plans accordingly.

Syllabus: The following table will provide you with a schedule for homework, reading and exams. Econometrics is not the sort of subject that can be left for a last minute cram. It takes a continuous level of effort.
DateTopicReading Assignment Due
Sept 2Descriptive Statistics and Probability Greene, Chap 3
Sept 9Random Variables and Distributions Greene, Chap 3 Paper Title
Sept 16Sampling Distributions and Estimation Greene, Chap 4Hwk1, Abstract - Statement of Problem
Sept 23Hypothesis Testing, Small Sample and Large SampleGreene, Chap 4, Miller L15Hwk 2
Sept 30Analysis of Variance Buck
October 7Simple Regression, MVNB: Simple Regression Buck
October 14Mid-term Hwk 3
October 21Matrix Algebra Greene, Chap 2Annotated Bibliography
October 28Multiple Regression: OLS, RLS and their Properties, An Application Greene, Chap 6; Miller L1, L2, L3
November 4Multiple Regression: Gauss-Markov and GLS Greene, Chap 6Hwk 4
November 11Hypothesis Testing:t-tests, F-tests, large sample tests Greene, Chap 7; Miller L9, L16, L17Detailed Outline
November 18Data Problems: Misspecification, Missing Data, Multicollinearity Greene, Chap 9; Miller L8Hwk 5
December 2Heteroscedasticity Greene, Chap 12
December 9Autocorrelation Greene, Chap 13 Hwk 6 and Data
December 16Final Exam Paper, Optional Hwk

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