2017/18 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

LUBS2500 Applied Economics

10 creditsClass Size: 200

Module manager: Dr Quentin Outram
Email: Q.Outram@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2017/18

Pre-requisites

LUBS1950

Economic Theory & Apps 1

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This module is designed to enable you to critically assess statements based on economic and social statistics. It will therefore help to stop you making a fool of yourself by mis-interpreting economic and social statistics and, if you are a single subject economics student, it will help you undertake the research and analysis required for your Level 3 dissertation. It will enable you to detect misleading uses of economic and social statistics by politicians, civil servants, the business world, the legal profession, the voluntary sector, journalists and academics.

Objectives

This module aims to teach students the skills required to find, collect, interpret and evaluate empirical evidence on contemporary economic and social policy issues. The emphasis is on the critical assessment of statistical quality in areas subject to economic and social policy. It aims to prepare students for Level 3 dissertations.

Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this module students will be able to:
- Assess the quality of economic and social statistics through the consideration of statistical definitions, classifications, accuracy, bias and validity, and the statistical production process
- Use economic and social statistics to consider matters of fact and causation and draw conclusions from the statistical evidence which take account of the quality of the data
- Develop further technical accuracy in written expression

Skills outcomes
Upon completion of this module students will be able to demonstrate:
Transferable
- Written and visual communication skills including the construction and use of tables and graphs, the use of citations and references
- Time management skills

Syllabus

Indicative content
Statistical Quality: definition, classification, accuracy, bias, validity; the statistical production process. Followed by a series of topics each based on a different major source. The topics may change from year to year. Currently they are: the UK Census and migration; the UK Census and human fertility rates; the UK Labour Force Survey and unemployment; poverty and unemployment; the National Income accounts and measures of well-being; the Consumer Price Index, other price indices and the measurement of changes in real incomes over time; the World Bank's International Comparison Program, purchasing-power-parity exchange rates and the comparison of real incomes over space; Labour Force Surveys, unemployment and economic activity in poor countries; statistics of international trade and changes in the structure of international economic relations.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Computer Class	1	1.00	1.00
Seminars	3	1.00	3.00
Lecture	17	1.00	17.00
Private study hours			79.00
Total Contact hours			21.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			100.00

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Assignment	3,000 word project.	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

The resit for this module will be 100% by coursework.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 20/12/2017

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