SS 2026 — Econometrics Lecture

Course information

WISO300582, 2 SS

Literature: the lecture is based on the book "Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach" by J. Wooldridge. The teaching collection holds about 10 editions of Wooldridge; one copy is available at the SoWiRe library, and the University of Vienna's teaching collection holds another 25 copies. In addition, I recommend the book "Using R for Introductory Econometrics" by Florian Heiss and his videos. The book can be read online for free and the R code downloaded at: www.urfie.net.

The lecture also includes computer exercises. Please bring your own laptop. Install the software R and RStudio (in that order). A short guide can be found in Torfs & Brauer (2014) "A (very) short introduction to R". If you don't have a laptop available, please contact me.

Grading: grading is based on lecture exams. I announce these via online.boku.ac.at.

Note: the Econometrics lecture WISO300582 takes place in the first half of the semester, the seminar WISO300578 takes place in the second half. It makes sense to attend both courses in the same semester.

Materials

Chapter 1

• Slides: Introduction to Econometrics, Palo Verde example
• R code
• Arriagada et al. (2010) "Modelling fertilizer externalities around Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica"
• Data

Chapter 2

• Slides: Simple Regression Model
• R code

Chapter 3

• Slides: Multiple Regression Model
• R code

Chapter 4

• Slides: Hypothesis Testing
• R code and RData4
• F-test example: Cobb-Douglas vs. Translog
• Solution

Chapter 5

• Slides: OLS Asymptotics

Chapter 6

• Slides: Functional Form and Interpretation
• R code

Chapter 7

• Slides: Dummy Variables
• R code

Chapter 8

• Slides: Heteroskedasticity
• R code

Chapter 9

• Slides: Model Specification
• R code

Note: material links above point to a password-protected folder on this site (course materials are restricted to enrolled students, in part because of publisher copyright on assigned readings). Access is via your BOKU credentials.

Further resources

Want to learn more about econometrics? I recommend the free online course at the Econometrics Academy, the videos by Florian Heiss "Introduction to Econometrics with Applications in R", and also the videos from the AEA Continuing Education series from 2017 on "Cross-Section Econometrics" (Alberto Abadie, Joshua Angrist, Christopher Walters).

R

• R-Project webpage. Under "CRAN" you can download R. Links to documentation, wiki etc. can also be found on this page.
• CRAN Task View "Computational Econometrics" — overview of R packages relevant to econometrics.
• R manuals: R's own collection of manuals.
• FAQs: frequently asked questions.
• Task Views: R packages, sorted by topic.
• News: archive of the R newsletter, now superseded by the R Journal.
• Books: I recommend Kleiber and Zeileis (2008), Ligges (2008) and Chambers (2008). A bit more adventurous is Vinod (2008).

AI

BOKU's AI, https://boku.academic-ai.at/, is very competent at helping write and understand code.

Editors

• RStudio for Windows, Linux and Mac: a recommended R editor that combines editor, console, file management, help, graphics, etc. in one window. We also use it in the seminar.
• Textpad for Windows. Syntax highlighting for various software: definition for R.
• Gedit for Linux (the Gnome editor, installed by default in e.g. Ubuntu) together with the RGedit plugin.

R search

• R Seek: Google-based search for R.