Economics 2327
Fall 2009


Instructor: William Lott
Office: HRM 346
Office Hours: MWF 10-12
Phone: 860-486-3885
E-Mail: William.Lott@uconn.edu
Web Site: http://wlott.uconn.edu
Class Period MWF 8-8:50 AM
Classroom HRM 203
TA: Lisi Shi
TA E-mail: Lisi.Shi@uconn.edu
TA Office: TBA
TA Office Hours: TBA
Text: Excel 2007 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies by Greg Harvey, PhD, Paper, 2007


In-class Exercises 30%
mid-term exam (Oct. 16) 20%
project 20%
final exam (Dec. 14, 8:00AM ) 30%
Total 100%

    Notes
  1. In-class exercises (Friday's class period) are graded 1(poor), 2(O.K), or 3(outstanding). At the end of the semester, your lowest 3 exercise grades will be dropped. Absences count as zeros, but may be among the three grades that are dropped.
  2. There will be no make-up of the midterm exam. Missed midterms will result in the final being worth 50%.
  3. The project is to create an Excel workbook showing imaginative use of some of the techniques you have learned in Economics 2327. It should apply information technology methods from at least two of the class exercises to data that you have acquired on your own. Keep in mind that effective presentation of data requires careful attention to selection of data, choice of methods, visually meaningful graphs, and even details such as colors and an appropriate number of decimal places. The results of your Excel work will be presented in an at least 3-page paper on the topic that displays and explains the results of your research.  The paper will be the basis for 60% and your workbook 40% of your final grade on the project.  The spreadsheet is a tool to that allows you to write an effective paper. Your topic must be economics in nature. A one-paragraph project proposal is due on November 20th. The project is due December 4th.  A grade penalty will be imposed on projects that are submitted after December 4th.
  4. Instructions for Monteith Room 203
  5. Data Sources


From Dean of Students

“Attention Students.
Final exam week for Fall 2009 takes place from Monday, December 14 through Saturday, December 19. Students are required to be available for their exam during that time. Students must visit the Dean of Students Office if they cannot make their exam. The DOS will give the student his or her instructions thereafter.

Please note: vacations, previously purchased tickets or reservations, weddings (unless part of the wedding party), and other large or small scale social events, are not viable excuses for missing a final exam. Please contact the Dean of Students office with any questions. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.”


Tentative Course Outline (Subject to Change)
Date
Topic
Aug. 31 Introduction. Boring columns of numbers vs. effective visual images: Bankrupties
Sept. 2 Basic microeconomics: elasticity of demand
Sept. 9 Frequency Distribution: Income vs Insured
Sept. 14 BoxPlot: Connecticut Faculty Salaries
Sept. 16 What If: Table Analysis: Property Tax Payments
Sept. 21 Scenarios: Products production and profits
Sept. 23 Goal Seek and Solver
Sept. 28 Histograms and Correlation: Rental Vacancy Rates
Sept. 30 Rates of Change: Real Interest Rates in the Vietnam Era
Oct. 5 Aggregating monthly data to quarterly and annual data: Dollar Exchange Rate
Oct. 7 Index Numbers: World Inflation
Oct. 12 Present Value Calculations: The lottery and the value of lost earnings
Oct. 14 When did it happen: dates and time in Excel
Oct. 19 Midterm Exam
Oct. 21 Filters: New England State Revenues
Oct. 26 Pivot Tables: Making Sense American Community Survey
Oct. 28 Simple Regression with Excel: Huble Constant
Nov. 2 Multiple Regression and Transformations
Nov. 4 Financial calculations: mortgage interest rates and downpayments
Nov. 9 Time-Series: Seasonal Indices
Nov. 11 Income Inequality
Nov. 16 Income Inequality: Connecticut
Nov. 18 Poverty: Connecticut and Elsewhere
Apr. 16 Income Taxes: Connecticut and U.S. Data
Nov. 30 Dealing with data in inconvenient format: text manipulation and macros
Dec. 2 Working with Lists: Stock Market Recommendations
Dec. 7 Saving for Retirement
Dec. 9 Cellular Automata on a Spreadsheet
Dec. 14 - 8 A.M. Final Exam


Worksheets
Week Lecture Exercise
1 Week 1 Exercise 1
2 Week 2 Exercise 2
3 Week 3 Exercise 3
4 Week 4 Data Sources Exercise 4
5 Week 5 Exercise 5
6 Week 6 Exercise 6
7 Week 7 Midterm Exam
8 Week 8 Exercise 7
9 Week 9 Exercise 8
10 Week 10 Exercise 9
11 Week 11 Exercise 10
12 Week 12 Exercise 11
13 Week 13 Exercise 12
14 Week 14 Exercise 13