Teaching basic econometric concepts using Monte Carlo simulations in Excel

Genevieve Briand and Carter Hill

International Review of Economics Education, 2013, vol. 12, issue C, 60-79

Abstract: Monte Carlo experiments can be a valuable pedagogical tool for undergraduate econometrics courses. Today this tool can be used in the classroom without the need to acquire any specialized econometrics software. This paper argues that Microsoft Excel, which is already available at many office and home computer stations, offers the opportunity to run meaningful Monte Carlo simulations and to successfully teach students basic econometric concepts. The reader is guided, step-by-step, through two different exercises. The first one is a repeated sampling exercise showing that least squares estimators are unbiased. The second one expands on the first to explain the true meaning of confidence interval estimates of least squares estimators.

Keywords: Teaching; Econometrics; Excel; Monte Carlo simulations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1477388013000029
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ireced:v:12:y:2013:i:c:p:60-79

DOI: 10.1016/j.iree.2013.04.001

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Economics Education is currently edited by Guest, Ross

More articles in International Review of Economics Education from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().