The course aims at developing data analysis and programming skills. The course will expose the students to practical issues encountered when doing applied research. Some programming skills will be developed and reproduction of published papers attempted.

The first part aims at making the student familiar with all three components of data analysis: data management, analysis, and graphics. Upon completion of this part, the student will be able to use software efficiently for empirical quantitative analyses, in an organized, reproducible manner.

The second part aims at developing programming skills that allow for a more efficient implementation of analyses, for advanced methodological work and to use simple simulation computer experiments to test properties of estimators.

The course will introduce basic general concepts. Specific skills will be developed mostly using the software Stata. The software R will be also introduced and it will be discussed what the main difference between the two software are and why it may be useful to know more than one software.