Research Methods

Aims and objectives: Module 1: Logic. The aim of this part of the course is to give students the preliminary elements of classical logic, and some basic information concerning informal logic and argument analysis.
Module 2: Statistics and Econometrics Statistics is dedicated to the introduction of basic elements of probability and inferential statistics. The objective is to provide students with the theoretical and practical notions for estimation and hypothesis testing.
The objective of Econometrics is to provide students with the basic principles of the econometric analysis. All the theoretical aspects of the econometric modelling will be treated jointly with interesting and modern empirical applications in order to motivate students and try to respond to real-world questions with specific numerical answers.

Module 1: Logic. At the end of the course, the student will be familiar with the language of contemporary logic, and the main logical devices for the analysis and evaluation of reasoning, in science as well as in public communication. The student will know how to symbolize arguments expressed in ordinary language using the tools of propositional and predicative logic, and will be able to apply this knowledge to test the validity of formal arguments and to construct some elementary logical proofs. The student will also be able to reconstruct and evaluate informal arguments expressed in ordinary discourse applying a considerable set of argumentation schemes, and will be able to produce some good arguments to support a given claim.
Module 2. Statistics and Econometrics By the end of the module you will be able to:
Estimate a model using Least Squares.
Interpret the regression estimate and the computer output.
Apply diagnostics to check if the model is correctly specified and propose procedures to correct the miss-specification.
Run an independent analysis in an applied project.