ECON20003: QM2

WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL

INFORMATION ABOUT QUANTITATIVE METHODS 2
(QM2) ESTIMATION AND HYPOTHESIS TESTING OF A
POPULATION MEAN
References:
S: § 9.3-9.4, 10.1-10.3, 10.5, 12.1-12.4
W: Ch 1-2, § 3.1-3.6, 3.8-3.9

Faculty of Business and Economics

Department of Economics
https://xkcd.com/925/
 INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL INFORMATION

Subject Coordinator
and Lecturer: Dr Mehmet Özmen
Office: 352, 3rd floor, FBE Building
Phone: 9035 8912;
Email: mehmet.ozmen@unimelb.edu.au
Consultation hour: Fridays 11:00 - 12:00 in my office

Lectures: There are two one-hour lectures a week across two streams.
(2) TUE 16:00 – 17:00 (PAR-149 Public Lecture Theatre & Event
Venue - PLT)
OR TUE 17:00 – 18:00 (PAR-110 Copland)
AND
(1) FRI 9:00 – 10:00 (PAR-106 David P. Derham)
OR FRI 10:00 – 11:00 (PAR-110 Copland)

UoM, ECON 20003, Week 1 4

Tutorials: Start in week 1.

Subject website: LMS

The subject guide, some review resources, the lecture notes and the
tutorial materials can be downloaded from this website in due time.
Also, time to time, important messages might be uploaded onto the
subject website, so visit it regularly.

Texts: In this subject you will learn topics from intermediate

statistics and econometrics alike.

Two recommended texts

UoM, ECON 20003, Week 1 5

 Prescribed text (W): Recommended text (S):
Wooldridge, J.M. et al. (2021): Selvanathan, E.A. et al. (2021):
Introductory Econometrics Asia- Business Statistics, 8th edition,
Pacific Edition, 2nd edition, Cengage Learning Australia.
Cengage Learning Australia.

UoM, ECON 20003, Week 1 6

Software:

Both programs are free. R can be downloaded from the

Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) website
(https://cran.r-project.org/), while RStudio is available at
https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/.
You can find the instructions for downloading and installing R and
RStudio on a Windows computer in the Tutorial 1 handout and in
the first R video. If you have a Mac, you can get help from Student
IT at https://studentit.unimelb.edu.au/.
You will need to use these programs to complete the assignments.
UoM, ECON 20003, Week 1 7
Prerequisites:
Quantitative Methods 1 (ECON10005), or an equivalent subject.
QM2 students are supposed to master the topics discussed in Chapters
1-13, 17-18 of the S(elvanathan) book. Namely,
Graphical descriptive techniques and numerical descriptive statistics;
Joint, marginal and conditional probability;
Random variables and probability distributions (binomial, uniform,
normal and t);
Sampling distribution, estimation and hypothesis testing of one
population mean and the difference between two population means;
Simple linear regression and correlation.

UoM, ECON 20003, Week 1 8

In QM2 we have four aims:
• To learn quantitative skills that are essential in the majority of jobs that
business, commerce and economics graduates obtain.
• To implement these skills using examples from accounting, management,
marketing, economics and finance.
• To perform the various statistical procedures using the R statistical
software and RStudio.
• The focus is on choosing the appropriate technique for each
problem, implementing it correctly, and interpreting the results.

Subject overview:
Building on QM1 or some equivalent prerequisite unit, QM2 is structured as
follows.
Part 1: Statistical inference about one, two or more populations with
parametric and nonparametric techniques (5-6 weeks)
Part 2: Regression analysis with cross-sectional data (4-5 weeks)
Part 3: Regression analysis with time series data (2 weeks)
UoM, ECON 20003, Week 1 7
Assessment: Tutorial participation and homeworks 10%
Three assignments 30%
Mid-semester test 10%
Final exam 50%
Tutorial classes:
Learn and practice the selection and the implementation of
appropriate statistical techniques both manually (i.e., with a calculator)
and with R in a wide range of examples.

Casio FX82 (with any suffix) calculator, or something similar, and to be

able to use it efficiently (including its STAT mode). If you do not know
how to do so, see the manual on Canvas.

Before each tutorial

i. Attend / watch the previous week’s lecture.
ii. Go through the relevant tutorial handout. They are self-
explanatory and sufficiently detailed, so follow the instructions, and
reproduce the illustrative example(s).
UoM, ECON 20003, Week 1 10
 iii. If you run into some problem and need help, ask your tutor before or
during the tutorial class for assistance, but do not expect your tutor
to cover the entire handout.

After each tutorial, attempt the “Exercises for assessment”, submit

your solutions and answers via Canvas Quiz by 10am on Wednesday
the following week (see further details in the Subject Guide).
To get the 10% credit for tutorial participation and homeworks, at least 10
weeks you must (i) attend the tutorial and (ii) submit the homework from
the previous tutorial in time.

Three assignments:
There will be three assignments for 10% credit each.
i. Online submission via Canvas.
ii. Students can work alone or in a group of up to four.
iii. Students in a group must submit a single copy of their assignment
and will get the same assignment marks.
iv. No late assignments are accepted and no extensions will be given.
11
UoM, ECON 20003, Week 1
 Mid-semester test:
There will be one mid-semester test for 10%.
i. Conducted on campus (Wilson Hall)
ii. Will be held on Tuesday 8th April
iii. You will elect into one of several waves throughout the day
iv. Details TBA

Note: Students who lose some internal (i.e., tutorial homework, assignment
or mid-semester test) marks for valid reasons can apply for special
consideration to get the lost marks transferred to the final exam.

UoM, ECON 20003, Week 1 12

Final exam at the end of the semester:
It is worth 50% of the final grade for this subject.
i. It will be a 2-hour in-person exam during the University's normal
end of semester assessment period.
ii. The exam will cover all materials discussed during lectures and
tutorials throughout the semester.
iii. There will be no surprises. The questions and tasks on the final
exam will be similar in terms of style and difficulty to those in the
tutorial problem sets, in the assignments and in the mid-semester
test.
iv. It will be a closed-book exam, so formula sheet and statistical tables
will be provided with the exam.
v. On the exam students will neither be asked nor tested on how to use
R / RStudio, but they will need to be familiar with R printouts.
vi. Students must pass the exam, i.e. to achieve 50% of the total exam
mark, to successfully complete the subject.

UoM, ECON 20003, Week 1 13

If you wish to complete this unit successfully

• Attend lectures and participate in the tutorials every

week.
• Work on the tutorial problems every week.
• Cooperate with your fellow students.
• If you do not understand something, get help as soon as
possible before you miss too much – ask your tutor, your
lecturer, or visit the Ed Discussion Board on LMS.
• Repeatedly review what you learnt previously in
order to reinforce everything several times.