Resources | ECON3500: Econometrics and Applications

Flex points and extra credit

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Extra credit

As we’ve discussed in class, you earn up to two extra credit points on your final grade. These are added directly to your final course percentage.

Working sessions

Attending working sessions with Rae is the primary way to earn flex points. You need to attend 8 sessions (out of the total offered) to receive full credit for this component. Note that this is a reduction from the previous requirement.

The formula is: $\min\left(\frac{\text{sessions attended}}{8} \times 2,\ 1\right)$

Research paper extra credit

There are two additional extra credit opportunities tied to your research paper to encourage you to explore new tools (LaTeX!) and data practices (replicability!)

LaTeX: If your final paper and tables are written and formatted in LaTeX, you are eligible for up to 1 point.
“Push-button” replication: If I can open one master do-file, run it, and it produces all of your tables with minimal effort and no changes on my end, you are eligible for up to 1 additional point. The amount depends on how cleanly and completely the replication runs.

Rae and I are both happy to help with LaTeX and replication workflow questions. For either and both, I consider AI use acceptable, provided that you disclose that use clearly in your AI attribution statement.

If some of this does not make much sense yet, that is fine — it will likely be more relevant in April when you are closer to the final paper. You are welcome to reach out now or later in the semester.

Maximum

The maximum across all activities is 2 points total.

General problems you could face this semester

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes you get sick. Or awful things happen. You’re not alone, and UVM has support for you.^[I collaborated on this guide with UVM English professors Holly Painter and Susanmarie Harrington. This stuff is generally true for all of your classes. Everyone here wants you to succeed.]

Problems

Health, family, and friends

I’m not feeling well

Stay home! Rest. Help your body help you.

In the meantime, you can complete a Short-Term Acute Illness Form. This will alert Student Services about what’s going on, and they will reach out to all your professors at once. Then, your professors can make accommodations to help you. You can reach out to me directly as well or wait for the form to go through..

You can also schedule an appointment at Student Health Services (802-656-3350).

Something big is wrong - I have a serious illness or injury

If your health problem goes beyond “short-term acute illness,” please reach out to Student Services at your college. They will help you! It is their job.

I’m experiencing a family emergency

Same as above. Reach out to your college’s Student Services office. They’re here to help you.

I’m struggling with my mental health

Mental health problems are health problems. If you’re struggling and your mental health is affecting your school performance, your college’s Student Services office can help you arrange accommodations with your professors. This is very common!

Please consider reaching out to Counseling and Psychiatry Services (CAPS) (802-656-3340). They are free and confidential, though there may be a wait for the first appointment. If you need a same-day appointment, tell them, and they will help you right away.

I’m experiencing food/housing insecurity

If you are facing problems securing food or housing, I strongly encourage you to contact your college’s Student Services office. You can also talk to me if you feel comfortable. UVM also has several initiatives to help with food insecurity. This includes the Rally Cat Cupboard on the first floor of the Davis Center.

I’m worried about a friend

Call the Dean of Students Office (802-656-3380). If you’d like to stay anonymous, you can submit a C.A.R.E. form online and the C.A.R.E. team will follow up with your friend. If it’s an emergency, call 911 off campus or 802-656-3473 on campus.

Someone has discriminated against me or harassed me because of my identity

This is not okay, and it’s a violation of UVM policy. You can file a report, which will be investigated by the Office of Equal Opportunity.

I’ve witnessed a crime or I’m being threatened

If there is a crime in progress or an emergency situation, call 911 or UVM Police Services at 802-656-3473. To report a crime after the fact, use the CATSafe app or this form**. Refer to this webpage for information about reporting threats.

Someone has sexually assaulted or harassed me

This is not your fault, and there is help available to you in the coming days, weeks, and months. UVM’s physical and mental health resources are coordinated through the Center for Health & Wellbeing. You can get completely confidential help through Hope Works (call 802-863-1236 or visit their website to contact an advocate or therapist, or their 24-hour chat line).

You don’t need to report assault or harassment to access medical or support services, but if you decide to report it, you can do so anytime. To file a criminal report, contact UVM Police (802-656-3473). To start an internal (non-criminal) investigation of harassment, use this form.

Please note that most UVM faculty and staff (professors, advisors, Res Life staff, student employee supervisors, etc.) are mandated reporters, meaning that, if you write about or tell us about a sexual assault or sexual harassment, we’re required to report it to UVM’s Title IX Coordinator. (This is not the case for Hope Works.) But you never need to disclose details about assault or harassment in order to ask questions about how to get support.

I’m falling behind academically

Come to office hours or e-mail me so we can find a time to talk!

The Undergraduate Writing Center provides free writing support and feedback at any point in the writing process for any class and any type of assignment.

The books and research databases at Howe Library are invaluable resources. If you need research help in any course, UVM research librarians are at the ready.

If you have a documented disability and you’re interested in utilizing accommodations, contact Student Accessibility Services. You’re also strongly encouraged to discuss with your professors the accommodations you plan to use in each course.

My computer is broken

UVM’s Enterprise Technology Services offers free software support and can also do (not-free) repairs on Apple and Dell computers. Off-campus, Small Dog Electronics does repairs on PCs, Macs, iPhones, and iPads.

Student Services

For many of these situations, your first contact will be Student Services in your college:


CALS (Agriculture & Life Sciences) email: calsstudentservices@uvm.edu	CAS (Arts & Sciences) email: cas@uvm.edu
CEMS (Engineering & Mathematical Sciences) email: cems.student.services@uvm.edu	CESS (Education & Social Services) email: cessstsv@uvm.edu
CNHS (Nursing & Health Sciences) email: cnhs@uvm.edu	Rubenstein (Environment / Nat. Resources) email: marie.vea@uvm.edu (Asst. Dean)
Grossman (Business) email: gsbcss@uvm.edu

General resources

Sat, 12 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Stock and Watson Student Resources (note that some links are bad)

Solutions to odd-numbered exercises

Standard Normal Distribution Probability Table

Stata Resources

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Stata Resources

Looking for more examples? Check out these Stata Cheat Sheets

Our Stata labs will get you started with Stata, but at some point you’ll want to do something we didn’t explicitly cover. You might also want to get a second pass on key concepts. Fortunately, there are lots of resources on the internet to help you with Stata! Here are some of the best.

Stata Corp Video Tutorials - Videos! There are a lot of videos, but don’t be deterred.

I’d start here:
UCLA Stata Learning Modules - Text walkthroughs of key commands and processes.

SSCC Introduction to Stata - Video + text walkthrough introduction

SSCC Data Wrangling with Stata - Video + text walkthrough, part II!
Stock and Watson Stata 14 Tutorial (At bottom of page)

General Resources

Library of Statistical Techniques (LOST) - Start with what you want to do and you’ll find walkthroughs in Stata and R!
Masayuki Kudamatsu’s Compendium of Stata advice
Code and Data for the Social Sciences: A Practitioner’s Guide: Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro

If you come across something else, let me know and I’ll pass along the recommendation!

How do I …

Work with do-files?

Work with log files?

Research paper data sets

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Data sets

Great data sets

IPUMS: The Minnesota Population Center (MPC) has put together well-documented, free microdata datasets available for the public. You need to fill out a brief form and wait up to 24 hours to get access
- IPUMS - USA: US Census data (1950-present, decennial)
- IPUMS - CPS: Current Population Survey (1962-present, annual (sometimes monthly)) - data on wages, work, and other special topics
- IPUMS - International: International Census data from nearly 80 countries
- ATUS: American Time Use Survey (2003-present, annual)
- IDHS: Integrated Demographic and Health Series (18 countries, 1980s-present)
- IHIS: Integrated Health Interview Series (US, annual, 1960s-present)
- NAPP: North Atlantic Population Project (complete count Census data from 1800s, select countries)
General Social Survey - Annual survey of US residents' attitudes towards a variety of social issues, plus demographic characteristics. You can do state-level comparisons with this data.
World Values Survey

Sets of data sets

ICPSR: Source of wide range of data sets, some very obscure! Well documented. UVM is a member institution of ICPSR, so you should have full access to this resource.
Google dataset search - searchable archive of of publicly accessible datasets
U.S. City Open Census Data
Data is plural archive - from Jeremey Singer-Vine, who runs a free weekly newsletter all about neat data.
Development economics datasets - from Plamen Nikolov
Erik Gahner’s PolData - A LOT of datasets related to politics
DevEconData
Sebastian Tello-Trillo’s guide to finding datasets
Kraggle- Just a lot of data

Research paper checklist

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Guidelines and tips for papers

A research paper is not an essay!
- Personal opinions don’t have a place
- Sources should be primarily academic (peer-reviewed journals, working papers, etc.), maybe some non-academic sources for motivation only
- Divide your paper into labeled sections
Present tense when describing what people find and what you find.
First-person active voice! (I estimate a regression, NOT “A regression is estimated”)
- Single-authored paper first person singular, “I.” (You’re not the queen!)
- Joint-authored paper first person plural, “we.”
- Don’t believe me? Check out any economics paper published in the past 20 years. There’s some variation in I vs. we, but all use active voice.

Abstract & Title

Descriptive title included
250 words or less abstract

Introduction

States your research question clearly
Explains what economic theory says about the potential answers to your questions, and/or defines clear hypotheses that you test
Describes why your topic is important
Describes what you do
Describes what you find
Describes how it contributes
Reader can infer all main points of paper just from introduction

Motivation/Literature Review

At the back of your mind, when motivating your paper, ask “what is the link to economics”?
- If studying discrimination, what does economic theory tell us about why discrimination exists/persists
- If studying stock market returns, what do economic models tell us about our ability to predict returns?
Includes papers that have answered your research question (or similar research question)
Research results described in present tense (“Smith finds,” not “Smith found”)
Papers linked clearly to their contribution (as relates to your research question)

Methodology, data, and empirical specification

Data source described and cited
Population model written out (you can use the Equation Editor in Word)
- Use proper equation notation (betas, u, etc.)
- Use appropriate subscripts (i, t, y, etc.)
- All relevant variables explained/defined
- Use “real names” to describe variables when possible (i.e., use female for women, not w1)
- Don’t forget the error term!
Describe your methodology. Are you estimating a model using OLS? If so, say so.
Correct standard errors: robust? Clustered? Something else?

Please enjoy this empirical specification handout!

Results

When using categorical/dummy variables, what is your omitted category? Make sure you know and that it’s clear.
What are the units of your measures?
- Is that percent or percentage points?
In most contexts, about 3 places past the decimal point is right, but it depends on the magnitudes. If you really want to be precise, set and stick to a reasonable number of significant digits. There’s no place for a number like 0.05403823 or 0.0000000 in your tables.

Tables and Figures

Tables should be properly formatted. That is, they should be made in Excel (or LaTeX) and NEVER copied and pasted out of Stata
Variables should be described using real words. I.e., “number of children,” not “numchld.”
Tables and figures should be numbered (Table 1, Table 2, etc… Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.) and should also be given a title. Refer to tables by their numbers in the text.
Tables should include standard errors and significance stars

References

Use footnotes rather than endnotes
At the end of your paper, include list of references cited
Include a minimum of 5 academic sources (8 total)
You can format using APA or Chicago style
- Citation Owl or Google Scholar will do it for you
In-text, cite with author and year (Author, Year; Author, Year)

AI Attribution

Include an AI attribution statement at the end of your paper
- If you used AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot), identify which tools you used and describe what you used them for (e.g., brainstorming, editing, coding assistance)
- If you did not use any AI tools, state that explicitly
- This is worth 2 points and is full credit or zero — don’t skip it!

Working with data

If you’re working with people

What is the age range you want in your sample?
What years of data do you need?
If in the US, do you want citizens, or do you also want to include immigrants?
If dealing with labor force variables, do you want all people of working age, all those who are in the labor force, or all who are employed?

Research paper resources

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Getting started with IPUMS

You will need an account to use IPUMS, and there can be some wait time for approval. So it’s a good idea to set up your account before you need your data, so you don’t get slowed down.

Other resources

IPUMS has also put together extensive set of tutorials!

Here are some particularly handy ones:

If you plan on doing your research paper in R, then I strongly recommend ipumsr.

Writing a research paper

Writing Tips for Economics Research Papers (Plamen Nikolov) - This is very good, but it targeted for graduate students
Structure of Economic Research Papers (Plamen Nikolov) - This is another, very good, take on how to structure an undergraduate economic research paper.

Stata FAQ

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Stata FAQ

Getting Started

Downloading Stata using AppsAnywhere

Where is my home directory?

Stata needs a folder to work in, and you need to tell it where to look. This can be achieved by the cd command (change directory)

cd /Users/emilybeam/Dropbox/EC200 , where “/Users/emilybeam/Dropbox/EC200” is the file path

But how do you know what your file path is? As our computers have gotten shinier, it’s become harder to figure out.

PC

General PC instructions from wikihow

Basically…

Right click on the folder you put all your stuff in, and click on “properties.”
Then you’ll see something called “Location: C:/Users/Emma/Documents/Folder” or something like that.
You’d then change directory in Stata by entering “cd “C:/Users/Emma/Documents/Folder”

Mac

It’s a very similar process!

Right click on the folder you put all your stuff in, and click on “info.”
You’ll see something like “Where: iCloud Drive > Documents > Student > Folder,” with tiny black arrows. That will not look like a file path.
But, if you select it, copy it and paste it, it will paste as “/Users/Student/Documents/Folder”
You’d then change directory in Stata by entering cd “/Users/Student/Documents/Folder”

Right click on the folder you put all your stuff in, so a menu pops up
Press the option key, and see how the menu now has an option that says “copy NAME as path”. Select that option
Paste it in Stata, so you enter cd "/Users/Student/Documents/Folder"

Resources | ECON3500: Econometrics and Applications

Flex points and extra credit

Extra credit

Working sessions

Research paper extra credit

Maximum

General problems you could face this semester

Problems

Health, family, and friends

I’m not feeling well

Something big is wrong - I have a serious illness or injury

I’m experiencing a family emergency

I’m struggling with my mental health

I’m experiencing food/housing insecurity

I’m worried about a friend

Someone has discriminated against me or harassed me because of my identity

I’ve witnessed a crime or I’m being threatened

Someone has sexually assaulted or harassed me

I’m falling behind academically

My computer is broken

Student Services

General resources

Stata Resources

Stata Resources

General Resources

How do I …

Work with do-files?

Work with log files?

Research paper data sets

Data sets

Great data sets

Sets of data sets

Research paper checklist

Guidelines and tips for papers

Abstract & Title

Introduction

Motivation/Literature Review

Methodology, data, and empirical specification

Results

Tables and Figures

References

AI Attribution

Working with data

Research paper resources

Getting started with IPUMS

Other resources

Writing a research paper

Suggested topics

Stata FAQ

Stata FAQ

Getting Started

Downloading Stata using AppsAnywhere

Where is my home directory?

PC

Mac