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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Econometrics: Methods and Applications by Erasmus University Rotterdam

4.6
stars
1,197 ratings

About the Course

Welcome! Do you wish to know how to analyze and solve business and economic questions with data analysis tools? Then Econometrics by Erasmus University Rotterdam is the right course for you, as you learn how to translate data into models to make forecasts and to support decision making. * What do I learn? When you know econometrics, you are able to translate data into models to make forecasts and to support decision making in a wide variety of fields, ranging from macroeconomics to finance and marketing. Our course starts with introductory lectures on simple and multiple regression, followed by topics of special interest to deal with model specification, endogenous variables, binary choice data, and time series data. You learn these key topics in econometrics by watching the videos with in-video quizzes and by making post-video training exercises. * Do I need prior knowledge? The course is suitable for (advanced undergraduate) students in economics, finance, business, engineering, and data analysis, as well as for those who work in these fields. The course requires some basics of matrices, probability, and statistics, which are reviewed in the Building Blocks module. If you are searching for a MOOC on econometrics of a more introductory nature that needs less background in mathematics, you may be interested in the Coursera course “Enjoyable Econometrics” that is also from Erasmus University Rotterdam. * What literature can I consult to support my studies? You can follow the MOOC without studying additional sources. Further reading of the discussed topics (including the Building Blocks) is provided in the textbook that we wrote and on which the MOOC is based: Econometric Methods with Applications in Business and Economics, Oxford University Press. The connection between the MOOC modules and the book chapters is shown in the Course Guide – Further Information – How can I continue my studies. * Will there be teaching assistants active to guide me through the course? Staff and PhD students of our Econometric Institute will provide guidance in January and February of each year. In other periods, we provide only elementary guidance. We always advise you to connect with fellow learners of this course to discuss topics and exercises. * How will I get a certificate? To gain the certificate of this course, you are asked to make six Test Exercises (one per module) and a Case Project. Further, you perform peer-reviewing activities of the work of three of your fellow learners of this MOOC. You gain the certificate if you pass all seven assignments. Have a nice journey into the world of Econometrics! The Econometrics team...

Top reviews

DT

Feb 13, 2020

Course was very well structured, pacing was very pleasant (albeit a little fast for the chapter about time series). Teachers were top notch! I had lots of fun while learning . Thank you!

JJ

Nov 15, 2015

The design of the course is very Helpful and efficient. The course is well explained. The instructors are very clear and master the subject. They very detailed and well organized.

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1 - 25 of 258 Reviews for Econometrics: Methods and Applications

By Deleted A

Mar 25, 2016

One thing I regret from this course is the content of the video lectures. Having watch the first week's videos, I found that the professor mostly just read the slides - and did it in a very faithful and careful manner, not to miss a subscript .... This is quite devastating for me. I can read the slides myself (although I have to download it first, since the fonts on the screen are very small). What I need is the professor to explain the logic behind the formulas, the *why* behind what is written, instead of just reading *what* is written on the slides.

I find it amusing that with an expected learning of 8 hours a week, the total duration of the first week's videos add up to a mere 36 minutes. A couple of weeks ago I have just finished a course that subjectively is comparable in its difficulty level. That course is also rich in mathematical content and also requires a commitment of 4-8 hours per week. Each week, the duration of the lecture videos amount to somewhere between 120-150 minutes - and the lecturer didn't read slides; instead, he would explain the logic behind the concepts and provided papers for learners to read on our own time. That approach really helped scaffold my learning.

I hope you'd consider revisiting this course's learning plan - or probably just state on the course info page that this course is more suitable for a refresher course rather than an introductory one.

By Nicolas V

Aug 11, 2017

Too much math with not enough explanations.

No explanations on how to solve the exercises on any software.

Exercices are very long (the "10 minutes"/exercise is just a joke - one took nearly an hour). Correction of the exercises are poor (just written answers on paper).

By Pedro A

Oct 5, 2017

Old fashioned Econometrics course, still using the ideas of fixed regressors (rather than the more sensible conditional models approach), emphasizing prediction instead of causal interpretation, etc.

It is false that such approach allows to introduce difficult econometric methods in an easy way: it has been for decades that modern and worldwide used handbooks (Wooldridge, Stock & Watson, Angrist & Piscke, etc) do it in a more sensible and opposite way. This is so not only because it is actually easier (learn just from the title of one the book by Angrist & Piscke: "Mostly Harmless Econometrics"), but also because fix the right concepts and way of looking at the problem: probability (not fixed things), conditional expectations, causality.

By Subin P

Jul 9, 2019

if this is the first time taking econometrics, do not take this course. you will have a hard time.

by no means is this for first-timers.

By Nathan B

Apr 20, 2016

Not much teaching going on here. The concepts are barely touched on before the student is asked to jump into training exercises that require lengthy proofs of concepts not thoroughly taught.

By Zoltan S

Jan 2, 2016

The course it's great , however in my opinion it's too theoretical with few practical examples.

If you're confortable with matrices and mathematics this course will provide you with very interesting tools and demostrations.

I don't think that the course is for casual students, as it's very specific.

By Cormac D

Jun 16, 2020

This course is a joke

By Harvey T

Jun 9, 2016

Very practical, I would urge people who intend to take this course to come to this course with at least some knowledge of econometrics and statistics. It would come in handy.

By Keith S

Mar 13, 2021

This course is poorly taught, leaving out almost all intuition of what's going. the lectures don't adequately describe the materials used for the exercises, which is where the large majority of the actual learning takes place, however it is often harder to parse what the questions are really asking and why they are asking these questions than than the questions themselves.

Overall I'm sure this course is technically accurate and rigorous, but I am often not sure why as the material is not remotely made interesting nor is it well explained.

"Now I invite you to train yourself by making the training exercise." has become my least favorite sentence in the English language.

By Hussein N N C

Mar 29, 2016

If I can understand all of these derivatives, why shall I attend your course? It is not helpful course, especially for persons looking for some practical econometrics applications rather than focusing on the mathematics side of it.

By viveksampy

Feb 13, 2017

The class recording could have been made simple. Lots of notations, and would definitely be difficult for people without prior econometrics background.

By Nikos T

Apr 11, 2018

Besides the videos there was low supporting content. I needed to search a lot online to find information that were needed. Waste of money.

By Ticiano A M C

Nov 3, 2015

If you have to pay for the certificate itself, then the course can't be too serious or maybe even that much helpful.

By Neda K

Apr 23, 2016

poor!

By Bruno A C A

Sep 5, 2018

Amazing for a person who would like to start with Econometric models at the most fundamental level. You will get a load of knowledge after you complete even if you know about econometrics. If you have difficulty in algebra and statistics, do start with the last week's lectures. They are the most difficult, but follow them until the end and do all the exercises. Also, the support of the teaching staff is outstanding when you have questions. Cannot recommend it more.

By Nicolás G

Sep 6, 2020

It´s a great course, it offers many tools to deal with the different issues of econometrics, it´s challenging, but that´s the idea of a course, it makes you learn and think

By Munirul N

Jul 31, 2016

I find this course excellent. It is a well balanced course in combining econometric theory and its application. The fact is that to apply econometric theory one needs to understand fair bit of econometric method (that includes matrix algebra, some properties of inner product space etc.) as well as how to apply those concepts in practice. In this respect this course does serve its purpose very well.

Overall, this course focuses some fundamental aspects and properties of cross-sectional data and time series data. Therefore, it provides one a good foundation (over 8 weeks) so that one can carry out one's future quest regarding any empirical topic by oneself ! I admit that modern econometric theory develops more sophisticated techniques but all of them share one common aspect i.e. they are based on more or less the same fundamentals or properties. Indeed, this course has been designed carefully by targeting those fundamentals and properties. Thus it might be very helpful to follow the modern econometric techniques.

However, this course does not talk about the panel data analysis, which share both the cross-sectional and time series properties (more or less). In my opinion it might be better to have at least additional one week session on panel data. In particular, when the data set shares both cross-sectional and time series properties, which set of properties will be dominant or how the estimation technique incorporates the variation of two dimensions (i.e. cross-sectional and time ) etc.

Finally, I like to thank all the teaching members and moderators of this course. I have enjoyed the lecture slides and videos very much.

By duc-thanh t

Feb 14, 2020

Course was very well structured, pacing was very pleasant (albeit a little fast for the chapter about time series). Teachers were top notch! I had lots of fun while learning . Thank you!

By Philipp T K

Dec 12, 2016

This is a fantastic MOOC: it has depth, exercise questions with solutions, challenging assignments and background material. The quality of the lecture videos is excellent!

By Harro F A C

Aug 31, 2017

The first time I took this course, I basically "rage quit". I found it difficult to follow the proofs and the heavy use of linear algebra scared me. After one year I returned to it (with more knowledge of the prerequisites) and loved it. This is an outstanding course that covers some common topics in econometrics in good detail. While the course tries to develop your intuition, there is also some work applied to mathematical proofs. The only minor complaint that I have is that it still lacks some material on how to apply the methods using common programming languages or statistical software. Nevertheless, most of the applied assignments can be done using basic commands (at least in R). If you have a good grasp of the prerequisites, I definitely recommend this course.

By Pingchuan M

Sep 19, 2017

The most strongly recommended.

All the knowledge involved is very difficult. But this is exactly what I want. I view myself as a smart guy. But believe me, you will spend more time than the suggested time cost on the website. But all the payout is worthy.

If you don't have enough statistic knowledge, it's okay. But I think you should go over the optional week 8 materials very carefully before you study this course. And I think week 8 materials are enough.

Every week has 5 parts, and after every part, there is a small training exercise to solid your understanding. And at the end of every week, there is a peer-reviewed test. And believe me, if you complete all the well-designed training and tests 100%, you will no longer fear for the relevant problem.

By Carlos J R R

Jan 7, 2016

Excelente curso, muy bien ideado con muchos ejercicios para que queden bien grabados los conceptos, en un nivel no tan básico pero con toda la información necesaria para lograrlo. De los mejores cursos que he tomado en Coursera. Soy economista y lo tomé para repasar y fue mejor de lo que esperaba.

By Nishikant C

May 7, 2019

Very Good Course. However, The exercises were a bit challenging . Walk through of related examples would have helped a lot for the exercises.

Does require some mathematical background in Statistics. Intermediate to advanced course considering the complexity

By Jean-Luc

Nov 15, 2015

The design of the course is very Helpful and efficient. The course is well explained. The instructors are very clear and master the subject. They very detailed and well organized.

By Graham T

Oct 23, 2018

Rigorous condensed econometrics course with clear instruction. Great for my review of the subject, and most likely for anyone new to it who has the prerequisite skills.