ECON 97: Economic Toolkit

UCLA · Instructor · Spring 2026

Overview

This course covers essential mathematical and computing skills needed to study modern economics, with an emphasis on probability and statistics. Its reviews set algebra, combinatorics, probability theory, integral calculus, estimation, and other problem solving techniques used in probability and statistics. Some lessons focus on the basics of Excel and R (a statistical programming language) in order to prime you for future econometrics coursework.

Topics

Methods of enumeration Random variables Conditional probability Discrete probability distributions Expected values Binomial and Poisson distributions Continuous probability distributions Integration Multivariate probability distributions Functions of random variables Uniform distributions Normal distributions Central limit theorem Estimation Confidence intervals R coding Simulation

Selected Teaching Materials

Lecture slides

Coding and data analysis

• Excel materials
• R materials

Other materials

• Practice problems
• Course syllabus

This page contains representative materials rather than a complete course archive.