Quantitative Economics with R

This book provides a contemporary treatment of quantitative economics, with a focus ondata science. The book introduces the readerto Rand RStudio, and uses expert Hadley Wickham's tidyverse packagefor different parts of the data analysis workflow. Aftera gentleintroductionto R code, the reader'sR skills are gradually honed, with the help of "your turn" exercises. At the heart of data science is data, and the book equips the reader to import and wrangle data, (including network data). Very early on, the readerwill beginusing the popular ggplot2 package for visualizing data, even making basic maps. The use of R in understanding functions, simulating difference equations, and carrying out matrix operationsisalsocovered.The book uses Monte Carlo simulation tounderstandprobability and statistical inference, and the bootstrap isintroduced. Causal inferenceis illuminated using simulation, data graphs,and R code for applications with real economic examples, covering experiments, matching, regression discontinuity, difference-in-difference, and instrumental variables. The interplay of growth related data and models ispresented, before the book introduces the reader to time series data analysis with graphs, simulation,andexamples.Lastly, twocomputationally intensivemethods-generalized additive models andrandom forests (an important and versatile machine learning method)-are introduced intuitively with applications. The book will beof great interest to economists-students, teachers,and researchersalike-who want to learn R.It will help economics students gainan intuitive appreciation of applied economicsand enjoy engagingwith the material actively, while also equipping them with key data science skills.