Econometrics/Stats: Proving a Matrix is Symmetric and Idempotent

[Pirian]

My international econ prof is doing research in that area

[Seanr]

I had to google at least three different terms to make sure this wasn't a joke topic with made-up words that needed to get moved to Spam.

was the only reason I clicked the thread. I am disappoint

[Ferion]

Since there are some Econ folks here, I might as well share this. I'm taking a really interesting course in computational economics which focuses on using computer programs to develop static and dynamic models and using them for problem solving and research. This is something that's rarely taught or introduced at the undergrad level, but if you're thinking of going on to grad school, or even in a business application, it's really applicable. The text for the course "Computational Economics" by Kendrick, Mercado, and Amman walks you through using Excel, Mathematica, MATLAB, Maple, and GAMS with examples to demonstrate how to use the programs for economics applications. It's a bit pricey, but if your uni library has it it's worth a good read. It's supposedly very good stuff to have on your resume that you can use these analytical packages (and stat software like EViews or SPSS, though EViews is better for econ/finance applications) as they are used in both research and industry.l

I wish there was more of this when I was still in school, really find computational stuff interesting. One thing I would highly suggest would be to become pretty comfortable with SAS and its programming language. I used it almost exclusively for my senior honors thesis and it was probably one of the more marketable skills I had on my resume.

[madpersian]

What I'm reading here reinforces my disappointment at my school's economics program. I picked it as my major without doing enough research beforehand. It was a bad idea. Our school only offers it as a BA, with a quantitative requirement of calc for business, basic stats and an intro the econometrics class. After my first year I got so bored with it and did some more research into what you actually need to know to apply economics and I am now doing an econ/math double major. The math part is much more interesting and challenging. Also I changed into the honors program so I can take the fulfill the rest of my econ requirements with graduate versions of the classes.

My undergrad econ classes are filled with unemployable bros who have an aneurism if the teacher mentions that they may need to minimize x. It's such fail, but it's my own fault for not researching it better before starting it. Good think I'm in them math program too now.

[Elesirdur]

Good on you for doing the math double. There's a reason why you see a lot of prof's with BSc or MAs in math, and it's pretty much what you described here.

On the computational econ side, we just started using Maple in that class and it's a wicked program. It's pretty easy to acquire and is amazingly powerful. Great for double-checking or modelling work in other classes. Look into it.

[madpersian]

My roommate (a graduate Economics student) told me he has that program. I'm going to be looking into it when I take my grad econometric class next semester and am putting together my thesis. Thanks for the heads up.