CASE STUDIES IN A BASIC ECONOMETRICS COURSE: APPLICATION OF MATHEMATICS IN ENGINEERING ECONOMICS

Abstract

In the present paper several real-worldproblems used as case studies in basic statistics oreconometrics courses are discussed. The problems includeconsumer response to unexpected in-store coupons, analysisof problems in company Latvian Post and the analysis of thedynamics of the population of Latvia. Two of the three casesare based on real data collected from Latvian sources.Hypothesis testing methodology is illustrated by analyzingcustomers’ behavior with respect to “surprise” coupons.Different statistical sampling methods can be analyzedsolving the Latvian Post case. Finally, a simple linearregression model is constructed in order to analyze thedynamics of the population of Latvia. The suggestedproblems are analyzed in a managerial statistics course anda course on mathematics for economists at Riga TechnicalUniversity.

Index Terms - Case study, hypothesis testing, regressionanalysis.