Empirical Methods for Law and Economics

This course is mainly aimed at students with little or no knowledge of Statistics/Econometrics (but some mathematical knowledge is a prerequisite). It is intended as an introduction to statistics and econometric theory, as well as to the basic econometric tools useful to conduct empirical and experimental studies of legal issues. During the course, students will also learn how to conduct basic statistical analysis using the STATA statistical software program.

For the assessment, students will be required to submit a report on a working paper or a seminar/workshop presentation, to be agreed upon with the instructor. The report should include a summary of the paper and a series of comments, in the style of a referee report.

Course Contents

  • Presentation of the course
  • Background (Introductory Statistics)
  • Describing a Single Variable
    • Categorical Variables; Continuous Variables
  • Descriptive Statistics and Relation Between Two Variables
    • Correlations
  • Statistical Tests
    • Pairwise Correlation + t-test + Proportions as Continuous or Categorical
  • Regression Analysis: Introduction (Theory and Practice)
  • The Assumptions of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Regression
  • Building a Regression Model
    • Dummy (or indicator) Variables in a Regression Model
  • Assessing Regression Output
  • Introduction to Experimental Economics

Assessment method

Students will be asked to submit a report on a working paper or a seminar/workshop presentation, to be agreed upon with the instructor.

The report should include a summary of the paper and a series of comments, in the style of a referee report.

Students might be asked to give an individual or group presentation on this report.

Suggested Textbooks/Readings

Textbooks:

  • Jeff M. Wooldridge: Introductory Econometrics. A Modern Approach, 6th Edition, South-Western, 2018
  • Angrist, J. D. & Pischke, J-S. (2014): Mastering Metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  • Studenmund, AH. (2017). Using Econometrics: A Practical Guide, Global Edition. Pearson.
  • Acock, A. C. (2008). A gentle introduction to Stata. Stata press.

Readings:

  • All those cited in the slides