MSc Economics

Maths and Statistics Pre-Sessional

Welcome to the maths and statistics pre-sessional for the MSc in Economics. My name is Francesca Cornaglia and I will be delivering these sessions, which are here to get you comfortable with the mathematics you will use in econometrics, starting from wherever you happen to be starting from.

When and where. Both sessions run online on Microsoft Teams.

Session 1 — Monday 21 September, 11:00 to 14:00 — matrix algebra and optimisation (Teams link)
Session 2 — Thursday 24 September, 11:00 to 14:00 — probability and statistics (Teams link)

There will be two short breaks in each session.

What we will do. Both sessions build towards a single formula — the ordinary least squares estimator, β̂ = (X′X)⁻¹X′y — which you will meet in the first week of econometrics. By the end of the first session you will have derived it yourself.

What you need to do beforehand. Nothing. There is a companion document on this page which you are welcome to skim, and a note explaining how to use it, but there is no preparation and no assessment. People arrive on this course from very different starting points and some of you will not have done much mathematics for a while. That is expected and the sessions are planned around it.

How the sessions work. We work through examples together rather than presenting proofs. Both sessions are recorded and the recordings will be posted here, so nothing depends on keeping up in real time. The companion carries the fuller written treatment to read afterwards at your own pace. The most useful pattern is to skim before, attend, and re-read afterwards.