FIN 604: Stata in Finance
Contents
The topic of this course is the practical application of the statistics program “Stata” in Finance research. The course contains three major sections: How to use Stata, an introduction to the usage of the most common databases in Finance at this university, and an application example.
In the first section, we will introduce project and data management with Stata. In addition, we will teach estimation techniques and programming basics. In the second section, we will show where to get access to common datasets in Finance research. In the last section, students will have the chance to apply their knowledge to a practical example.
The course is offered shortly after the start of the seminar theses, that is, at the beginning of January in the fall semester (HWS) and at the beginning of July in the spring semester (FSS).
Learning outcomes
The main aim of the course is to prepare students with practical methods for conducting empirical Finance research. Students learn how to load, manipulate, and evaluate data using Stata. Stata is the most popular statistics program used in the Finance research community. In addition, students learn where they can access popular databases used in Finance at the University of Mannheim. The main focus of the course lies on the practical application of the Stata software.
Necessary prerequisites
–
Recommended prerequisites
Due to a limited amount of seats in the computer lab, the number of participants will be limited. We will prefer students who are writing an empirical seminar thesis in the Finance Area in the semester when allocating spots.
| Forms of teaching and learning | Contact hours | Independent study time |
|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 1 SWS | 5 SWS |
| ECTS credits | 2 |
| Graded | yes |
| Workload | 60h |
| Language | English |
| Form of assessment | Take home exam (pass/fail). Note that there is only one exam date per semester. A second attempt is only possible in the respective following semester. |
| Restricted admission | yes |
| Further information | https://www.bwl.uni-mannheim.de/en/theissen/teaching/master-courses/fin-604-stata-in-finance/#c81510 |
Examiner Performing lecturer |  | Prof. Dr. Erik Theissen Dr. Stefan Scharnowski |
| Frequency of offering | Spring semester & fall semester |
| Duration of module | 1 semester |
| Range of application | M.Sc. MMM, M.Sc. Bus. Edu., M.Sc. Econ., M.Sc. Bus. Inf., M.Sc. Bus. Math. |
| Preliminary course work | – |
| Program-specific Competency Goals | CG 1, CG 4 |
| Literature | The course is based on the provided lecture slides. The course requires the use of the statistical software Stata. |
| Course outline | 1. Introduction to Stata: Directories and folders, Stata extensions
2. Data Management: Reading and saving data, variables and data types
3. Database Manipulation: Creating variables, organizing and cleaning data
4. Graphs
5. Estimation: Basis, regressions, post-estimation 6. Programming basis: Good programming practice, macros, looping, branching |