Syllabus

AEM 7010: Doing Applied Economics Research, Spring 2026

The official course syllabus PDF will be linked here.

Course summary

AEM 7010 introduces practical skills for doing applied economics research. The course covers four areas across eight 75-minute sessions: trends in economic research, reproducibility, version control with Git and GitHub, and AI tools for coding.

This site documents the last quarter of the class. Sessions 1 to 3 are listed on the schedule and link out to materials hosted by the relevant instructors.

Logistics

• Term: Spring 2026, last quarter of the class.
• Meeting times: Mondays and Wednesdays, 75-minute sessions.
• First meeting: Wednesday, April 8, 2026.
• Last meeting: Monday, May 4, 2026.
• Instructors: Prof. Ariel Ortiz-Bobea (sessions 1, 4 to 8). Lars Vilhuber, AEA Data Editor (sessions 2 and 3).

Grading and expectations

The course is graded S/U. Attendance is expected at every session. Each session lists short tasks under Before class, In class, and After class. Completing these is what builds the practical fluency the course is designed to deliver.

Before you begin

Two short setup steps before Session 4: install Git, R, and an editor. Details on the Setup page.