Class 1: Introduction and Setup

Today we’ll motivate the study of causal inference, go over the details of the course, and talk about the basics of data management and version control.

Readings and other links

• Review the syllabus, schedule, content, and assignments pages for this class…just to get a feel for the site and how to navigate all of the information.
• Materials we’ll use throughout this module:
  • Lesson 2 from Data Science for Economists. This is part of a course from Grant McDermott with a ton of great online resources.
  • R for Data Science
  • Understand filepaths. Short video from Nick Huntington-Klein.
  • Chapter 5 of Causal Inference: The Mixtape
  • Chapter 14 of The Effect: An Introduction to Research Design and Causality
• Data for this module:
  • Data from Gapminder
  • Medicare Advantage repository

For next class

I’ll use R for this class, and I’ll use Visual Studio Code as my text editor. I’ll also use Git for version control. If you’re not familiar with these tools, don’t worry. We’ll go over them in class. For next class, please do the following:

1. Download R and/or Python (be sure to select the Add to PATH option when installing Python)
2. Download Visual Studio Code
3. Download Git
4. Download Quarto if you want to use it
5. Create a account on GitHub
6. Download GitHub Desktop
7. Install relevant extensions in VS Code and select proper Python interpreter