Computer Skills For Economics

Today's students are expected to use computers and familiarise themselves with word-processing and spreadsheet packages in their work. They are also expected to be able to use the Internet for e-mail and accessing information on the Web. In fact, some lecturers use the Web to provide course notes or even deliver parts of the course interactively. Most available computer books are too general and often miss out features that would be particularly helpful to economists. In fact, they don't show how such tools can be used in economics. This textbook fills a need for a computing and IT book aimed specifically at undergraduate economics students. It bridges the gap between IT literacy and the use of hardware, software and other resources in learning and doing economics. The main focus is on the tools and the resources that are particularly relevant to economists with examples of their use and suggestions of how to apply and exploit them in applications in economics. FEATURES Assumes no previous computing background - the book will adopt a practical and applied approach with emphasis on the software used by economists and how they use it. Use of examples and applications will allow readers to learn by doing and develop their computing skills. The book will be written in a concise and informal style with the use of screen grabs and text boxes. www.wiley.co.uk/judge - a Website containing solutions to exercises, PowerPoint slides and other supplementary material for instructors. The site will also have an archive for data used in the book and be a means of updating information. CONTENTS: Introduction: Tools, Tasks, Resources and Skills; Beginning to Work with Computers in Economics; Building on the Basics: Skills Development; Spreadsheets for Economists; The Internet for Economists; Statistics and Econometrics Software for Economists; More Advanced Computing Skills for Economists.

Excel is the most popular and widely used productivity software in all business environments, and it is an irreplaceable companion in ordinary work as in the analysis of large amounts of complex data. Nevertheless, the majority of users knows and uses only a very limited number of features, often in an elementary way. This workbook shows in practice the use of a wide variety of formulas, functions and features (like pivot tables, macros or the Solver add-in) that allow to effectively and professionally work with Excel. The workbook starts with the basics and gets progressively to deal with very complex cases. It is a valuable support for college students, professionals and managers who want to learn the basics or to improve the knowledge of Excel up to an advanced level. In the dedicated web area, all the initial and solved files are available to carry out the exercises and check the solutions. Over 40 exercises are commented, to highlight the basic concepts and clarify the most complex ones. The authors are all lecturers for the course of Computer skills for economics at Università Bocconi in Milan: Massimo Ballerini, Alberto Clerici, Chiara Debernardi, Davide Del Corno, Maurizio De Pra, Gianluca Salviotti and Marco Sampietro.

Increasing returns to schooling and rising inequality are well documented for industrial countries and for some developing countries. The growing demand for skills is associated with recent technological developments. The authors argue that computers in the workplace represent one manifestation of these changes. Research in the United States and industrial countries documents a premium for computer use. But there is recent evidence suggesting that computer skills by themselves do not command a wage premium. The authors review the literature and use data from a survey of higher education graduates in Vietnam. The results support the unobserved heterogeneity explanation for computer wage premiums. They suggest that computers may make the productive workers even more productive. However, given the scarcity of computers in low-income countries, an operational strategy of increasing computer availability and skills would seem to offer considerable hope for increasing the incomes of the poor.