Then you will combine data from different tables in this source to create economically interesting measures such as the velocity of money or the real interest rate. You can show your results in attractive, interesting graphs. Then you will use the Internet to update all of your tables and graphs. At that point, we will move from the end product of the statistical production process to almost raw data. You will get a sample of over 2000 individual responses to the 1990 Census of Housing and Population.
Different students get different samples.
We will learn the standard ways of describing statistical data, and you will illustrate them with your particular sample. After catching our breath during spring break, we learn to manage the workhorse of economic statistics, linear regression. With its help, you will investigate how income depends on education, age, gender, and other variables in your sample from the 1990 Census. Finally, having looked at microeconomic data, we will return to macroeconomic data, in particular to the National Income and Product Accounts, and see how the same statistical technique, linear regression, can be used also with time series data to investigate the determinants of investment. All of the statistical concepts which might otherwise seem dry will be illustrated with examples worked by you on computers with real data in realistic volumes.