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Limited Dependent Variables Syllabus: HT 2022, Weeks 5-6

My lectures on limited dependent variables and sample selection will take place in the Manor Road Building common room from 9-10:30am on Tuesdays and Wednesdays of HT weeks 5 and 6.

In 2021, because of covid restrictions, I produced approximately 4.5 hours of carefully edited videos covering all of my lecture material in detail. I also wrote a set of in-depth lecture notes to accompany the videos. Because in-person lectures were not permitted at the time, I met with students over zoom each week to answer questions and discuss the videos and notes. Students told me that they found this format extremely helpful. I enjoyed it as well, because it led to more back-and-forth between me and the students and helped me to pinpoint key areas of confusion.

This year I’d like to try to take the best of both worlds. Rather than simply duplicating the videos that you can already watch from the comfort of your home, I plan to run our in-person lectures more like a Q&A session. I will also try to give you a “big picture” overview of the material, and possibly introduce some additional examples to help build understanding. In support of this plan, I ask that you watch the videos before coming to each lecture.

To help you target your studies more effectively, I’ve marked some videos with an asterisk (1.5, 3.3, 3.4, 5.5) and listed some sections of the notes as “less important.” This material could be skipped on a first pass through the course or even skipped altogether without much loss. All else equal, I would still recommend that you watch and read this material, but it is certainly not where you focus your attention when preparing for the exam.

We have five topics to cover but only four lectures. In practice, this is less of a problem than it may appear: Topics 1 and 2 overlap substantially, as do Topics 3 and 4. Topic 3 is also quite short: much less than a full lecture’s worth of material. Below I indicate which topics we’ll discuss in each in-person lecture, along with the corresponding videos and readings. There will be two problem sets for my part of the course, both of which appear below. They are due on Mondays of HT Weeks 6-7 at noon.

HT Week 5

Topic 1: Maximum Likelihood under Mis-specification

Topic 2: Poisson Regression

Topic 3: Models for Binary Outcomes

Problem Set #1

Due Monday of HT Week 6 at noon.

HT Week 6

Topic 4: Random Utility Models

Topic 5: Sample Selection Models

Problem Set #2

Due Monday of HT Week 7 at noon.

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