Announcements

Important announcements will be posted here to avoid our inboxes getting clogged up.

If you have questions during the course - direct them to us via Slack. There's a 'Direct Message' feature so you can contact us individually as needed, but where possible post messages to a channel that all participants can see.

Final Assignment

Date Posted: 2021-09-27

Detail about the course assignment:

  • Due date: Friday, October 29th at 23:59.
  • Discuss with one of us your proposed assignment before you start
    • We can evaluate whether it is do-able within the time frame
    • Don't try and be too fancy, it's more important that it works
  • The assignment must:
    • Do some form of data cleaning / manipulation as part of the workflow
      • The initial "dataset" cannot be the one that generates the regression / figures
    • Produce at least one figure and one table of results that are saved to file
    • Use Snakemake to execute the workflow
  • Submission format: Invite @lachlandeer and @julianlanger to collaborate on your GitHub repository by the due date.
    • This means, we expect well version controlled work.
    • Tag your final submission using the following git command git tag -a 1.0 -m "submitted version"
    • You must have a README.md in the main directory with instructions on how we can build the assignment & what it does.
  • Explictly document somewhere what packages we need to install so that your assignment runs on our machine with no issues.
  • Your assignment must execute by us typing:
    • snakemake --cores 1 all

into a terminal that is opened into your project's directory

  • To pass the course:
    • Your code must build without errors via Snakemake (unless we find something really weird, then we will reach out to you)
    • The project must be version controlled, with each contributor making commits. One final commit is not enough.
    • Inputs and outputs must be in separate folders.

Welcome Message

Date Posted: 2021-08-23

Welcome to the course "Programming Practices for Research in Economics."

Please take a look around the course website before the course begins. All the latest information about the course contents, schedule and course locations (which may vary day-by day!) are available on these pages.

We particularly draw your attention to the:

  • Installation Guide. These pages walk you through the steps needed to install all the software for the course.
    • We expect you to have completed it before the course begins.
    • We are offering help to individuals struggling with the steps involved in the installation guide in a 'Help Session' before the course begins: Wednesday, September 1st. Time and location are TBA.
      • We expect you have tried to complete the guide yourself, and we will not be there to do it all for you.
      • The guide is modular in nature - with most steps being independent of those before and after.
      • For Windows users there are a couple of sections that are still being developed. They should be complete before September 1.
  • Pre-Course Survey.
    • Please fill this out before the course begins.

To avoid clogging up everyone's inboxes with course email, all future important information will be posted on the course's Announcements page - be sure to check in there regularly. Smaller pieces of information and course chat will take place inside a chat environment, called Slack. Sign up to join the conversation here.

We look forward to seeing you on the first day of classes on Thursday, September 2nd, at 9.30am.

Best,

Lachlan, Julian, Lexi and Martin