teaching economics students to become data professionals using sas

Certificate in Economic Data Analytics

Using SAS in its curriculum since 1980

Department of Economics at the University of Akron


Partnership since 2015

SAS Certificates first awarded in 2015

Department of Economics at the University of Akron


Number of jobs by software

SAS

SPSS

R

Matlib

Stata

JMP

Statistica

Systat

BDMP

0 2,500 5,000 7,500 10,000 12,500 Number of jobs on Indeed.com, 2015


SAS certificate in Economic Data Analytics


Every student can earn a SAS Certificate


Every student can earn a SAS Certificate

Graduate certificate

Applied Econometrics I

Applied Econometrics II

Microeconomics or Macroeconomics

Forecasting or Mathematical Economics

Job Market Paper written using SAS

Undergraduate certificate

Computer Skills for Economic Analysis

Applied Econometrics

Intermediate Microeconomics or Macroeconomics

Senior Research Paper using SAS


Tell stories

Economists


Are story tellers ready to

answer the ‘Why’

questions.

Economists


Understand The Data

Generating Process

Economists


Work with dirty data

Economists



observational and

transactional data

Economists



Cross Section, Time

Series, Longitudinal, Panel

data

Economists


Skilled in causality and not

just data description.

Economists


Common sense and reason

vs only

Statistical significance and

goodness of fit

Economists offer


Superior productivity

over

Predictive modeling

Economists offer


Use econometrics to

answer critical what-if

scenarios.

Economists


Have a strong linear and

nonlinear regression

toolkit.

Economists


Have the soft skills

employers desire

Economists


The economist as data scientist

MA Economics, 2011



MA Economics, 2008


Data Acquisition

Data Management

Data Analysis

Data Reporting



Data Acquisition

Primary Source

•Excel

•Text, CSV

•Other Formats

Data Base

• SAS

• SQL

• Other

Data Management

Manipulate to use

•Concatenation

•Merging on a common key

•Layering

Data Cleaning

Dealing with Missing Data

•Missing OBS

•Missing VAR

Creation of new Data

Data Analysis

SAS, R, Stata

Econometric Inference

Data Reporting

Creation of Strong Tables

Data Visualization

Ability to write

•To other analytic experts

•To other subject matter experts

•To the Public


Why economists make good data scientists

• We understand objective functions

• We have a very strong linear regression toolkit

• We “own” observational data and causality

• We have experience in articulating problems

and solutions

• We work with big (and dirty) data

Ken Sanford, former Econometric Evangelist, with SAS, now with Dataiku


Economists are likely to be employed as analysts


Analyst

Performance Analyst

Principal Financial Analyst

Business Analyst

Business Intelligence

Architect

Project Analyst

Senior Analyst

Associate Treasury Analyst

Product Manager

Data Scientist

Demand Planner

Senior Operations Analyst

State Regulatory Analyst

Regulatory Analytics &

Forecast Analyst

Client Services Analyst

Risk Analyst

eCommerce Data Analyst

Researcher

Capital Planning Analyst

Department of Economics at the University

Recent Placements – Job Titles


Firestone

Areawide Protective Services

Key Bank

The Timken Company

Kasina LLC

City Of St. Peter

JP Morgan Chase

First Energy Corporation

Huntington Bank

Mercer Consulting

Jo-ann Stores, Inc.

Cuyahoga County Economics

Department

Things Remembered HQ

Hertz

First Merit Bank

Econ Dev., City of Akron

Insight2Profits

Dwellworks

Cleveland School District

Inst. Of Industrial Policy Study

Department of Economics at the University

Recent Placements – Companies

College of Business Administration

• Fully AACSB accredited

– among 2% of Global schools

• Bloomberg BusinessWeek

– Top 100 in (all schools)

– Top 50 in (Public schools)

• MA Economics nationally ranked (TFE Times)

– First in NE Ohio

– 10th among schools without a PhD program

• MBA is a tier 1 CEO program by US News and

World Report

• MSA 15th in US

teaching economics students to become data professionals using sas

Education