Summer Course: Mathematical and Statistical Techniques for Business and Economics

This is an intensive 30-hour course offered before the start of the Fall semester, primarily for entering doctoral students. This course introduces the new Ph.D. students useful mathematical and statistical tools used in Business and Economics. It will be taught Monday through Friday for 3 hours a day, for two consecutive weeks. Classes will start on the first Tuesday of August (August 4th for Fall 2009).
Location: Melcher Hall, Room 210B
Time: 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Some classes may be rescheduled due to conflicts with orientation sessions. (Schedule change for Wednesday 5: 10 AM to 1 PM).

Class Organization
This Summer Course will be divided in two parts: Review of Mathematics (six days) and Review of Statistics (four days).

*Mathematics (6 days)
Matrix Algebra
Differential Calculus: univariate and bivariate
Optimization: extreme values and constrained optimitization
Integration
Difference and differencial equations
Continuous Time Math

Reference books
Mathematical Methods for Economics (2nd Edition), by Michael W. Klein, published by Addison Wesley (2002).
Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics, by Alpha C. Chiang, published by the McGraw Hill (1984).
Note: The first four chapters of Klein's book will be assumed to be known by all students. Many parts of the book, like unconstrained univariate optimization, will be assigned and not covered.

Math Lecture notes:
  • Chapter 4: Chapters 4-5
  • Chapter 5: Chapters 4-5
  • Chapter 6: Chapters 6
  • Chapter 7: Chapters 7
  • Chapter 8: Chapters 8
  • Chapter 9: Chapters 9
  • Chapter 10: Chapters 10
  • Chapter 11: Chapters 11
  • Chapter 12: Chapters 12
  • Chapter 13: Chapters 13
  • Chapter 14: Chapters 14
  • Chapter 15: Chapters 15


    *Statistics (4 days)
    Fundamentals of probability theory
    Random variables
    Distribution functions and moments
    Important univariate distributions
    Joint distributions
    Sampling distributions
    Parametric point estimation
    Hypotheses testing

    Reference books
    Statistical Methods In Econometrics, by Ramu Ramanathan, published by the Academic Press (1993).
    Econometric Analysis (2nd or later editions), by William H. Greene, published by the Prentice Hall.
    Note: Greene's book has a nice review of the statistical principles that will be covered in this class. It is the book used in the first Quantitative Methods class offered at the Bauer College.


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