International Economic and Financial Relations

General objectives: Provide students with suitable knowledge of the statistical methodologies useful for the applications in economics, from a theoretical as well as an applied point of view. Specific Objectives: provide students with the basic notions of probability, the underpinnings of statistical inference and its role as a tool to draw conclusions on population parameters based on sample data. Specifically, students will learn how to obtain an estimator and how to assess its properties, the theory of hypothesis testing, will be able to discriminate between the two types of errors and to evaluate the power of a statistical test procedure, and will know the theory of the linear regression model. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: Upon completion of the course, the students will be able to formalize a real data problem using the language of statistics, to identify the inferential question and to pick the most appropriate estimation and hypothesis testing procedures. They will be able to conduct their own analyses and build a regression model using a statistical program. Two lab sessions focused on the analysis of a case study will be conducted; after that, students will draft a short report describing the main findings and conclusions. This is intended to consolidate their ability to apply knowledge and understanding and to develop their communication skills. Learning skills: an essential bibliography will be made available to allow self-learning of new notions and more advanced techniques, especially micro and macro economic models.