Computing for Economists

ECON 2003 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

Computing for Economists is a month-long course introducing concepts in software engineering and scientific computing that are essential for modern economics research. Concepts will be introduced via videos that students will watch in advance of class sessions. Class sessions will be devoted to supervised group work on exercises. Students can choose six out of twelve modules, including topics in software engineering (e.g., object-oriented programming, metaprogramming, parallelization, computational complexity), scientific computing (e.g., non-linear equation-solving, numerical optimization, integration, differentiation), data manipulation (e.g., data normalization, large-scale data handling, data visualization), and some other advanced topics (e.g. combinatorial optimization). The course is designed to accommodate students with all levels of programming background, providing a flexible and practical approach to applying computational tools in economics. The course is based in Python, but will convey computational concepts that are portable across programming languages. Class sessions will be synchronous and will feature both in-person and remote options.