ECON 106Statistical Foundations for Econometrics

3 credits · Economics · Penn State

ECON 106 is an introductory course in economics/statistics which is designed to prepare students for econometrics ( ECON 306 ). The course emphasizes working with data and statistical ideas. Students will develop a working knowledge of statistics that can be applied not only to econometrics, but also nearly all of the sciences. The first part of the course will cover concepts related to probability and provide many examples of the use of probabilistic reasoning. Next, the course introduces random variables and how they may be represented by probability distributions of either discrete or continuous type. Next, the course covers sampling from a population and the distributions of some sample statistics. This leads to the crucial question of estimation - how to best use empirical data to inform about the value of the unknown parameters of a population. Students then subject empirical data to hypothesis testing - the use of data as evidence in helping confirm or reject hypotheses an economist might have as to how the world works. The last two weeks of the course will synthesize many of the above ideas in introducing the topic of linear regression, which is the main focus of ECON 306 , and is the fundamental empirical tool of economics and many other fields. ECON 106 is an introductory course in economics and serves as a prerequisite for ECON306. It is also a required course for all majors in economics, and meets requirements for a General Education (GQ) or Bachelor of Arts social science course. Students who have completed ECON 306 may not enroll in this course.