UCL economics students' success in international competition

UCL's team comprised postgraduate students Alex Armand, Andy Feld, Rodrigo Lluberas, Dan Rogger and Alex Tuckett. They competed alongside 25 teams from around the world.

Econometrics is concerned with the tasks of developing and applying quantitative or statistical methods to the study of and elucidation of economic principles. Over three days, the team had to analyse empirical data on a particular problem and report their results in two reports.

Dan Rogger, a PhD student in Economics, commented: "This year, the cases posed the problem of child mortality. The first asked whether the number of children who die influence the number a mother has and the second investigated the determinants of child survival. We then prepared two case reports."

The competition first started in 1999 for Dutch universities but quickly expanded and now hosts teams from all over the world. A rotating group of senior scholars is involved each year in designing the particular case that has to be analysed.

Dan added: "I think it was a really enjoyable experience for us all. Having to face such a sharp deadline was tense, and I haven't had to learn that intensively for a long time.  It pushed us to face up to what we knew about econometrics, and what we didn't know.  The organisers also put on a great event and treated us really well."

UCL's entry to the competition was made possible by a grant from the UCL Graduate School.

• UCL Economics 
• Econometric Game 

UCL Context

UCL Economics has an international reputation in key areas of applied theory, microeconometrics, game theory, labour economics, development economics, macroeconomics, industrial economics and environmental economics. 

The department offers a number of undergraduate degree programmes, an affiliate studies programme for undergraduate students from US universities, and a range of research and taught postgraduate degrees.