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Economic and Financial Research Methods, 7.5 Higher education credits

Ekonomiska och Finansiella forskningsmetoder, 7,5 Högskolepoäng

Established: 2023-06-01

Established by: School of Business, Economics and IT

Applies from: V24

Learning outcomes

After the completed course, the student shall be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

• acquire fundamental knowledge about research methodology and methods in the subject areas of economics and finance

Skills and abilities

• apply econometric and statistical techniques used in economics and finance professions
• apply statistical/econometric software used in economics and finance professions for the analysis of both cross-sectional and time series data
• design and carry out scientific research studies

Judgment and approach

• judge and motivate which method and technique are best suited to solve specific actual financial or economic problems related to work practices.

Entry requirements

60 hp of which 45 hp in Economics including: CFB300 - Corporate Finance, 7.5 HE credits and FIE100 - Financial Economics, 7.5 HE credits or equivalent.

The forms of assessment of student performance

Assignments and written individual exam.

Course contents

The course contains the following major moments:

Hypothesis Testing

• Description and interpretation of the choice of null and alternative hypotheses
• One-tailed and two-tailed tests of hypotheses
• Test statistic, significance level and how significance levels are used in hypothesis testing
• The decision rule and the relation between confidence intervals and hypothesis tests
• Statistical significance and economic/practical significance
• P-value and its relation to hypothesis testing

Linear Regression

• Correlation versus simple linear regression
• Dependent and independent variables in the linear regression model
• Least squares criterion, regression coefficients, and their interpretation
• Assumptions underlying the simple linear regression model
• Residuals and residual plots
• Coefficient of determination and F-statistic
• Analysis of variance (ANOVA), ANOVA results, standard errors
• Null and alternative hypothesis and related level of significance
• Predicted value for the dependent variable
• Different functional forms of linear regressions
• Statistical aspects of multiple regression
• Omitted variables bias
• Multicollinearity
• Regression with dummy variables

Univariate Time Series Analysis

• Lagged variables and selection of lag order
• The autocorrelation function
• The autoregressive model
• Nonstationary and stationary time series

Regression with Time Series Variables

• The autoregressive distributed lag model
• Cointegration
• The error correction model
• Financial volatility
• Granger causality
• Vector autoregressions

Other regulations

Course grading: F/Fx/E/D/C/B/A - Insufficient, Insufficient- more work required before the credit can be awarded, Sufficient, Satisfactory, Good, Very Good, Excellent

Course language: The teaching is conducted in English.

Work integrated learning The course contains problem solving based on actual data.

General rules pertaining to examination at University West are available at www.hv.se.

If the student has a decision/recommendation on special support due to disability, the examiner has the right to examine the student in a customized examination form.

Course Overlap

Read about course overlap in the Swedish version of this course syllabus.

Cycle

First cycle

Progressive specialization

G2F - first cycle, has at least 60 credits in first-cycle course/s as entry requirements

Main field of study

Economics