This new two-day masterclass run by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre will provide course attendees with a practical introduction to the most common empirical approaches in business, economic and social data analysis.
The course is designed to equip attendees with statistical modelling skills that support data-driven business decisions and evidence-based policy making, with a major focus on intuition and practical application of the main statistical techniques.
The course is structured around a combination of accessible lecture-based instruction and practical computer exercises using real world datasets to illustrate techniques and approaches that support a better understanding of economic and social outcomes, for example: What are the key determinants of wages and hours decisions. What contributes most to the likelihood of experiencing of poverty? What factors drive business revenues or profits?
Instruction is delivered in a way that conveys an intuitive understanding of data analytical methods, with an emphasis on the interpretation and communication of results and provides a series of tips and tricks for effective descriptive and statistical analysis.
Participants will be provided with an introduction to the use of the open-source R statistical programming language and the R-Studio interface to illustrate the modelling methods covered in the masterclass.
Some experience in statistical data analysis is preferred but the course is practical in nature and will not dwell too heavily on theory or algebra.
About the facilitators
Dr Silvia Salazar
Silvia Salazar is an applied micro-econometric researcher specialised in development economics, gender and ethnic inequality as well as public policy. She obtained her PhD at the Paris School of Economics and she has previously held academic and teaching positions at the University of Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne, the University of Paris 13 and the Dom Bosco Catholic University. She has presented her research at numerous international conferences and workshops.
Her research focuses on the analysis of household well-being and consumption levels. She analyses the factors affecting household welfare such as monetary expenditures and time consumption in leisure activities and domestic production. A large part of this research concentrates on how public policies affect income allocation and time distribution.
Silvia also has research experience in income inequalities, gender and Indigenous discrimination in the labour market. The specificity of her work lies in incorporation of the time dimension as well as in the utilisation of original and innovative econometric techniques in the study of well-being and public policies.