Introduction to Quantitative Economics

A paradigm-shifting textbook that teaches graduate students in economics how to use economic models to interpret data.

Graduate programs in economics often train students first in theory and econometrics, and then in more specialized fields of study, leaving fundamental aspects of how economists use theory to interpret data—concepts like falsifiability, identifiability, and counterfactual analysis—to be taught in niche, siloed contexts or not at all. Offering a new pedagogical paradigm, this textbook delivers a ready-made economics course covering the general concepts that unify different approaches to bringing economic models to data. Jesse Shapiro presents core ideas in quantitative economics as an abstract, cohesive whole and introduces canonical models that can be used across a wide range of applications. This course-in-a-book exposes students to stylized applications of these models that illuminate their foundations as well as recent research articles demonstrating the models’ broad applicability.

• Provides a coherent, generalized approach to making model-based inferences in empirical economics
• Introduces central concepts and canonical models in quantitative economics
• Features applications of modern research topics
• Allows instructors to easily replicate novel approach of author’s popular Harvard course
• Suits self-paced learning and classroom use alike