Elections

Thank you for your participation in the HCSFE elections on Thursday and Friday. All the necessary paperwork has been completed and submitted to the USG. We really appreciate the time many of you took to stop by the office and vote.

Best Regards,
Ken Lord

HCSFE Elections

In addition to the Friday hours elections and budget input, and because of numerous people informing me of schedule conflicts, HCSFE (The undergrad part) will be effectively holding a two day election on both this Thursday (2:00pm-6:30pm), and this Friday (2:30pm-5:00pm). We need at least a quorum of active members (16) to vote... the process is fairly quick since the three electable positions are uncontested.

We are aware of the encoding problems with some of the videos on the website, including those in the ECO721 section... we are working diligently to re-encode the videos so they work properly, but the process is time consuming (for a 140 minute class, the total time to convert from tape to a raw file, then from a raw file to a properly encoded file is 280 minutes). In our budget request (which only gets to go through the process if we have enough people vote), we have requested a DV camera to streamline the process. I cannot impress upon you enough how important it is to vote on Thursday or friday.... the appropriate voting forms will be available in 1538 HW both days, regardless of time (until 5:00 friday, when they get submitted). It is only with your support that we can utilize the money you already pay in fees so that we can provide you with resources to help you achieve your academic goals.

Best Regards,
Ken Lord

Hunter now has WRDS access (and this is a big deal for you finance people)

Hi guys,

Prof. Filer has informed me that Hunter now has access to the Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS), an on-line portal that gives you access to data from the NYSE, CRSP, Thomson Financial, and many others.

This is the kind of access that firms pay dearly for, so I strongly suggest to students that are seeking to do a finance-centered thesis to either see your thesis advisor or Prof. Filer on how to establish an account.

A few notes:

Dr. Filer holds usually holds two very informative information sessions early in the semeseter: one on applying to Graduate Schools and one outlining hints and procedures for thesis writing. Riva has suggested we could expand the latter to add additional information and he is willing.

The question is timing. This year we have so many classes that I see the
following options:

1) Weekday evenings AFTER 9:30 (there is a class until 9:20 every
night). I would prefer Tuesdays but could do Thursdays

2) Friday Evenings

3) A weekend day - perhaps a longer period on Saturday or Sunday afternoon
for the thesis writing workshop.

Please email me at klord@hunter.cuny.edu , and I will forward the number of people voting for each option along to Dr. Filer this Wednesday afternoon.
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HCSFE will be holding elections on September 29th. We will also be making any final alterations to the budget based on the requests of those in attendance. In order for the election to be valid, we need a quorum (16 people in this case), so please be sure to come to 1537 or 1538 between 2:30 and 5:00 to cast your vote. It's ok to be late or leave early if you have other commitments, but it is very important that you make your needs for the semester known.

The HCSFE website http://www.hunterecon.org has been overhauled... the site look is a bit rusty at the moment, and features will be added, but for now, the video and audio recordings (where professors have permitted) are availabe in the "Course Resources" section. Please remember it takes between 5-10 days from the date of the class until we can post it because we have to copy from tape and sync up the audio... hopefully our turnaround time will be much shorter if our budget request for a digital camcorder is approved.

Happy Chilean Independence Day, Lundi du Jeune, Keiro no Hi, and Pitr-Paksha,
Ken

Administrative Meeting

There will be an administrative meeting for the HCSFE on Friday September 15 from 1-3pm. We need as many people as possible to attend, whether you are a BA/MA, an MA, or a BA. We still need more tutors(MA or BA/MA), a VP(BA or BA/MA), and a Treasurer (BA or BA/MA). I know the notice is a bit short, but would greatly appreciate your attendance.

Best Regards,
Ken Lord
klord@hunter.cuny.edu

Updated do-file suggestions from Prof. Colman

Hi folks.

This posting is primarily for those currently taking microeconometrics. Here are updated do-files with the corrected paths:

(keep in mind that the don't come through well on the blog, so enter your dictionary file accordingly)

Dictionary file:

infile dictionary {
_lrecl(560)
_column(5) str10 hhid %10s "Household ID"
_column(15) str2 perno %2s "Person number"
_column(25) sex %1f "Sex"
_column(27) age %2f "Age"
_column(43) race1 %1f "Race"
_column(46) hispanic1 %2f "Hispanic origin"
_column(61) poverty %1f "Poverty status"
_column(67) family_size %1f "Family size"
_column(68) family_comp %1f "Family composition"
_column(70) health %1f "Perceived health status"
_column(71) act_limit %1f "Activity limitation"
_column(98) restrict_days %2f "Restricted activity days"
_column(182) region %1f "Region"
_column(201) wt %9f "Insurance sample weight"
_column(337) strata %4f "Strata"
_column(341) psu %1f "Primary sampling unit"
_column(410) medicaid1 %1f "Medicaid status"
}

Do-file:

clear
capture log close
set more off
set mem 40m

local insdct ""C:\Classes\Fall 2006\Hunter\Microeconometrics\NHIS\nhis95ins.dct""
local insdat ""C:\Classes\Fall 2006\Hunter\Microeconometrics\NHIS\HEALTHIN.DAT""
local insdta ""C:\Classes\Fall 2006\Hunter\Microeconometrics\NHIS\healthin.dta""

infile using `insdct', using(`insdat')

keep if age<18

/*
other variables needed:
age, sex, race, family size, family composition,
region, perceived health status, limitation of activity,
restricted activity days, and restricted activity days squared
*/

gen female=sex==2

/* customary race and ethnicity categories are non-hispanic white,
non-hispanic black, non-hispanic other, and hispanic
*/

/* We have to be sure that the race categories include everyone,
and do not overlap, so we create a new variable, race2, and then
create dummies */

gen race2=1 if race1==1 & hispanic1==10
replace race2=2 if race1==2 & hispanic1==10 & race2==.
replace race2=3 if race1==3 & hispanic1==10 & race2==.
replace race2=4 if hispanic1 !=10 & race2==.

gen nhwhite=race2==1
gen nhblack=race2==2
gen nhother=race2==3
gen hispanic=race2==4

gen poor=1 if poverty==2
replace poor=0 if poverty==1

gen northeast=region==1
gen midwest=region==2
gen south=region==3
gen west=region==4

gen health_excel=health==1 if health!=6
gen health_vgood=health==2 if health!=6
gen health_good=health==3 if health!=6
gen health_fair=health==4 if health!=6
gen health_poor=health==5 if health!=6

TA position for graduate microeconomics

Hi guys,

There's a high volume of students in this year's grad micro course, and as a result, the department is looking to hire a graduate TA to facilitate homework sessions.

Obviously, only those that have taken and done well in Eco 701 need apply. Preference will be given to those students that are not already TAing for another class.

Those interested should e-mail Prof. Filer at rfiler@hunter.cuny.edu.

Resources for those thinking about their thesis

I know quite a good amount of time can be spent trying to discover whether or not your hypothesis is testable with available data... hopefully a few of these links can help.

http://www.stat-usa.gov/ (Good Macro Data)
https://www.esa.doc.gov/ (mostly just an aggregator for other data sites)
http://www.census.gov/ (be aware much of this data requires special
tools to get into nice forms, but the tools are free at
http://www.census.gov/main/www/access.html )
subsequently, if you need data from 1980 and/or 1990, go
to http://ftp.census.gov/ )
http://www.bts.gov/ (Good transportation data)
http://www.bls.gov/data/home.htm (Labor Statistics)
http://ntlsearch.bts.gov/tris/index.do (Integrated transportation
database, great for finding data from early 1900s, also
contains research in progress TRB)
http://www.destatis.de/e_home.htm (German Statistics)
http://www.statcan.ca/menu-en.htm (Canadian Statistics)

Additionally, if you search the blog, there are numerous other great data resources with which you can work.

Best Regards, and Happy New Semester!
Ken Lord

PS- we are still in need of tutors for 200, 300, and 400 level courses, even if you can only guarantee an hour or two a week, please email me at klord@hunter.cuny.edu with your availability, and which classes you would be most comfortable tutoring in.