Introduction to Econometrics · Economics
Fundamentals of econometric modeling: OLS, diff-in-diff, etc. Quasi-experimental designs. Model interpretation and causal identification.
All the Econometrics courses share the exact same PSETs, so you can work with peers in any section and attend any TA Office Hours and Recitations. Grading is pretty straightforward. There are 8 PSETs worth a combined 35% of your grade, and 5% "Participation Homework" which are all on STATA. You can work in groups, so PSETs wouldn't take longer than 3-4 hours a week. Tests are also pretty standard if you do the practice exams and go to the review session.
6 Problem Sets that do take a bit of effort. One midterm which is candidly not that hard. He released previous midterms for our class and it was incredibly similar, so long as you understood the concepts it was pretty much an easy A, and I think he does this intentionally. The final was definitely a lot harder. I don't think the final for Best, however, is tougher than Erden's, my friends showed me their final and theirs seemed a lot more rigorous and in depth. I will say Best is pretty generous with the partial credit as well on the midterms and finals. Historically in my other econ classes, partial credit basically didn't exist so I was really surprised by this. Maybe this is intentional as the midterm and final are only like a few questions, so probably does this to offset that. Not a terrible professor overall and would say probably one of the better Econometrics professors.
Heavy. 11 problem sets that take AGES (and use a lot of R so take even longer if you have to figure that out) 20% Midterm 30% Final 50% (if you do better on the final than on the midterm it counts as 80% but good luck with that lol)
This class while challenging, was very informative.
9 problems sets / 1 midterm / 1 final I felt that econometrics was easier than macro and micro so those guys who like math/stat you will do fine!
Medium to Heavy. 15 hours/ Week because problem sets can be very long, repetitive and I got stuck often on STATA.
Weekly problem sets, time consuming but you can do them as a group
6 or 7 graded problem sets, 2 midterms (the better one is weighted 65% versus 35% for the worse one), and a Final. The exams and problem sets are tricky and aggravating to say the least. I would say, oh avoid Mitali Das, but then again, she teaches both sections in the Fall. Oh well, just suck it up I guess.
Weekly problem sets - graded (go to recitations to get help with these) Midterm and a Final (similar to previous year which you will get as a practice exam)