Welcome to APEC 8222: Big Data Methods in Economics
Location: Ruttan Hall 135 (preferred) or online via Zoom (contact me to get link)
Timing: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:45am to 1:00pm CT, from October 21 to December 9.
Github repo: https://github.com/jandrewjohnson/apec_8222_2025
Syllabus: syllabus.html
Class Google drive (email me if you need access): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sDnw8dXKSp3kcTqT_yfOxzfk_PoXR6oB&usp=drive_fs
base_data Google drive (email me if you need access): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oUZ_rv3M8bmQI4zbdzUa-ehxDKzpZNyF?usp=sharing
Video playlist for all lectures: TBD
Schedule
This will be updated as we proceed. If there’s not a link to a resource yet, it is not finalized yet and might change.
| Date | Topic | Readings | Video | Slides | Assignments |
| 2025-10-21 | 01 - Introduction | Slides 01 | Assignment 1 Assigned (very short assignment) | ||
| 2025-10-23 | Expanding your toolset, Introduction to Python [part 1] | Turrell, “Preliminaries” section: https://aeturrell.github.io/coding-for-economists/code-preliminaries.html | |||
| 2025-10-28 | Introduction to Python [part 2] | Turrell, “Coding Basics” section: https://aeturrell.github.io/coding-for-economists/code-basics.html | Assignment 1 Due, Assignment 2 Assigned | ||
| 2025-10-30 | Python on Big and/or Spatial Data | Optional: “Workflow Basics” and “Writing Code” sections | |||
| 2025-10-31 | APEC Seminar Relevant to The Course | ||||
| 2025-11-04 | Huge matrices with Numpy | https://nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2649-2 | Assignment 2 Due, Assignment 3 Assigned | ||
| 2025-11-06 | Huge tables with Pandas/Geopandas | Turrell, “Intro to Geo-Spatial Analysis” section: https://aeturrell.github.io/coding-for-economists/geo-intro.html | |||
| 2025-11-11 | Machine Learning and Cross-Validation | “Machine Learning Methods Economists Should Know About”, Hastie et al. (2009) Chp 2 | Assignment 3 Due, Assignment 4 Assigned | ||
| 2025-11-13 | Regularization and Shrinkage | “Big Data: New Tricks for Econometrics”, Hastie et al (2009) Chp 3 | Independent Project Assigned | ||
| 2025-11-04 | Regression Trees, Random Forest and LULC classification | Hastie et al (2009) Chp 15 | Assignment 4 Due, Assignment 5 Assigned | ||
| 2025-11-18 | University Closed (Thanksgiving Holiday) | ||||
| 2025-11-20 | KGML (Knowledge Guided Machine Learning) | To be assigned. | List of 3 project ideas/datasets due | ||
| 2025-11-25 | R and Python Integration | https://aeturrell.github.io/coding-for-economists/coming-from-r.html | |||
| 2025-11-27 | Neural Nets | Hastie et al (2009) Chapter 11 | Research proposal due | ||
| 2025-12-02 | Convolutional Neural Net & Transformers | “Combining satellite imagery and machine learning to predict poverty” | Assignment 5 Due | ||
| 2025-12-04 | Student Presentations! | ||||
| 2025-12-09 (Remote/Guest-lecture) | No class |