Welcome! Do you wish to know how to analyze and solve business and economic questions with data analysis tools? Then Econometrics by Erasmus University Rotterdam is the right course for you, as you learn how to translate data into models to make forecasts and to support decision making. * What do I learn? When you know econometrics, you are able to translate data into models to make forecasts and to support decision making in a wide variety of fields, ranging from macroeconomics to finance and marketing. Our course starts with introductory lectures on simple and multiple regression, followed by topics of special interest to deal with model specification, endogenous variables, binary choice data, and time series data. You learn these key topics in econometrics by watching the videos with in-video quizzes and by making post-video training exercises. * Do I need prior knowledge? The course is suitable for (advanced undergraduate) students in economics, finance, business, engineering, and data analysis, as well as for those who work in these fields. The course requires some basics of matrices, probability, and statistics, which are reviewed in the Building Blocks module. If you are searching for a MOOC on econometrics of a more introductory nature that needs less background in mathematics, you may be interested in the Coursera course “Enjoyable Econometrics” that is also from Erasmus University Rotterdam. * What literature can I consult to support my studies? You can follow the MOOC without studying additional sources. Further reading of the discussed topics (including the Building Blocks) is provided in the textbook that we wrote and on which the MOOC is based: Econometric Methods with Applications in Business and Economics, Oxford University Press. The connection between the MOOC modules and the book chapters is shown in the Course Guide – Further Information – How can I continue my studies. * Will there be teaching assistants active to guide me through the course? Staff and PhD students of our Econometric Institute will provide guidance in January and February of each year. In other periods, we provide only elementary guidance. We always advise you to connect with fellow learners of this course to discuss topics and exercises. * How will I get a certificate? To gain the certificate of this course, you are asked to make six Test Exercises (one per module) and a Case Project. Further, you perform peer-reviewing activities of the work of three of your fellow learners of this MOOC. You gain the certificate if you pass all seven assignments. Have a nice journey into the world of Econometrics! The Econometrics team

We have all heard the phrase “correlation does not equal causation.” What, then, does equal causation? This course aims to answer that question and more! Over a period of 5 weeks, you will learn how causal effects are defined, what assumptions about your data and models are necessary, and how to implement and interpret some popular statistical methods. Learners will have the opportunity to apply these methods to example data in R (free statistical software environment). At the end of the course, learners should be able to: 1. Define causal effects using potential outcomes 2. Describe the difference between association and causation 3. Express assumptions with causal graphs 4. Implement several types of causal inference methods (e.g. matching, instrumental variables, inverse probability of treatment weighting) 5. Identify which causal assumptions are necessary for each type of statistical method So join us.... and discover for yourself why modern statistical methods for estimating causal effects are indispensable in so many fields of study!

This course focuses on one of the most important tools in your data analysis arsenal: regression analysis. Using either SAS or Python, you will begin with linear regression and then learn how to adapt when two variables do not present a clear linear relationship. You will examine multiple predictors of your outcome and be able to identify confounding variables, which can tell a more compelling story about your results. You will learn the assumptions underlying regression analysis, how to interpret regression coefficients, and how to use regression diagnostic plots and other tools to evaluate the quality of your regression model. Throughout the course, you will share with others the regression models you have developed and the stories they tell you.

Welcome to Practical Time Series Analysis! Many of us are "accidental" data analysts. We trained in the sciences, business, or engineering and then found ourselves confronted with data for which we have no formal analytic training. This course is designed for people with some technical competencies who would like more than a "cookbook" approach, but who still need to concentrate on the routine sorts of presentation and analysis that deepen the understanding of our professional topics. In practical Time Series Analysis we look at data sets that represent sequential information, such as stock prices, annual rainfall, sunspot activity, the price of agricultural products, and more. We look at several mathematical models that might be used to describe the processes which generate these types of data. We also look at graphical representations that provide insights into our data. Finally, we also learn how to make forecasts that say intelligent things about what we might expect in the future. Please take a few minutes to explore the course site. You will find video lectures with supporting written materials as well as quizzes to help emphasize important points. The language for the course is R, a free implementation of the S language. It is a professional environment and fairly easy to learn. You can discuss material from the course with your fellow learners. Please take a moment to introduce yourself! Time Series Analysis can take effort to learn- we have tried to present those ideas that are "mission critical" in a way where you understand enough of the math to fell satisfied while also being immediately productive. We hope you enjoy the class!

This course offers a rigorous mathematical survey of advanced topics in causal inference at the Master’s level. Inferences about causation are of great importance in science, medicine, policy, and business. This course provides an introduction to the statistical literature on causal inference that has emerged in the last 35-40 years and that has revolutionized the way in which statisticians and applied researchers in many disciplines use data to make inferences about causal relationships. We will study advanced topics in causal inference, including mediation, principal stratification, longitudinal causal inference, regression discontinuity, interference, and fixed effects models.

The goal of this MOOC is to show that econometric methods are often needed to answer questions. A question comes first, then data are to be collected, and then finally the model or method comes in. Depending on the data, however, it can happen that methods need to be adapted. For example, where we first look at two variables, later we may need to look at three or more. Or, when data are missing, what then do we do? And, if the data are counts, like the number of newspaper articles citing someone, then matters may change too. But these modifications always come last, and are considered only when relevant. An important motivation for me to make this MOOC is to emphasize that econometric models and methods can also be applied to more unconventional settings, which are typically settings where the practitioner has to collect his or her own data first. Such collection can be done by carefully combining existing databases, but also by holding surveys or running experiments. A byproduct of having to collect your own data is that this helps to choose amongst the potential methods and techniques that are around. If you are searching for a MOOC on econometrics that treats (mathematical and statistical) methods of econometrics and their applications, you may be interested in the Coursera course “Econometrics: Methods and Applications” that is also from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Welcome to the Advanced Linear Models for Data Science Class 1: Least Squares. This class is an introduction to least squares from a linear algebraic and mathematical perspective. Before beginning the class make sure that you have the following: - A basic understanding of linear algebra and multivariate calculus. - A basic understanding of statistics and regression models. - At least a little familiarity with proof based mathematics. - Basic knowledge of the R programming language. After taking this course, students will have a firm foundation in a linear algebraic treatment of regression modeling. This will greatly augment applied data scientists' general understanding of regression models.

Power and Sample Size for Longitudinal and Multilevel Study Designs, a five-week, fully online course covers innovative, research-based power and sample size methods, and software for multilevel and longitudinal studies. The power and sample size methods and software taught in this course can be used for any health-related, or more generally, social science-related (e.g., educational research) application. All examples in the course videos are from real-world studies on behavioral and social science employing multilevel and longitudinal designs. The course philosophy is to focus on the conceptual knowledge to conduct power and sample size methods. The goal of the course is to teach and disseminate methods for accurate sample size choice, and ultimately, the creation of a power/sample size analysis for a relevant research study in your professional context. Power and sample size selection is one of the most important ethical questions researchers face. Interventional studies that are too large expose human volunteer research participants to possible, and needless, harm from research. Interventional studies that are too small will fail to reach their scientific objective, again bringing possible harm to research participants, without the possibility of concomitant gain from the increase in knowledge. For observational studies in which there are no possible harms to the participants, such as observational studies, proper power ensures good stewardship of both time and money. Most National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections will only fund a grant if the grantee has written a compelling and accurate power and sample size analysis. The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the statistics, research, and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education, also offers competitive grants requiring a compelling and accurate power and sample size analysis (Goal 3: Efficacy and Replication and Goal 4: Effectiveness/Scale-Up). At the end of the online course, learners will be able to: • Use a framework and strategy for study planning • Write study aims as testable hypotheses • Describe a longitudinal and multilevel study design • Write a statistical analysis plan • Plan a sampling design for subgroups, e.g. racial and ethnic • Demonstrate the feasibility of recruitment • Describe expected missing data and dropout • Write a power and sample size analysis that is aligned with the planned statistical analysis This is a five-week intensive and interactive online course. We will use a mix of instructional videos, software demonstration videos, online discussion forums, online readings, quizzes, exercise assignments, and peer-review assignments. The final course project is a peer-reviewed research study you design for future power or sample size analysis.

The capstone project will be an analysis using R that answers a specific scientific/business question provided by the course team. A large and complex dataset will be provided to learners and the analysis will require the application of a variety of methods and techniques introduced in the previous courses, including exploratory data analysis through data visualization and numerical summaries, statistical inference, and modeling as well as interpretations of these results in the context of the data and the research question. The analysis will implement both frequentist and Bayesian techniques and discuss in context of the data how these two approaches are similar and different, and what these differences mean for conclusions that can be drawn from the data. A sampling of the final projects will be featured on the Duke Statistical Science department website. Note: Only learners who have passed the four previous courses in the specialization are eligible to take the Capstone.

Understanding statistics is essential to understand research in the social and behavioral sciences. In this course you will learn the basics of statistics; not just how to calculate them, but also how to evaluate them. This course will also prepare you for the next course in the specialization - the course Inferential Statistics. In the first part of the course we will discuss methods of descriptive statistics. You will learn what cases and variables are and how you can compute measures of central tendency (mean, median and mode) and dispersion (standard deviation and variance). Next, we discuss how to assess relationships between variables, and we introduce the concepts correlation and regression. The second part of the course is concerned with the basics of probability: calculating probabilities, probability distributions and sampling distributions. You need to know about these things in order to understand how inferential statistics work. The third part of the course consists of an introduction to methods of inferential statistics - methods that help us decide whether the patterns we see in our data are strong enough to draw conclusions about the underlying population we are interested in. We will discuss confidence intervals and significance tests. You will not only learn about all these statistical concepts, you will also be trained to calculate and generate these statistics yourself using freely available statistical software.