For over 35 years, the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) has made remarkable strides in capacity building, advancing research, and graduate training to shape African economic policies. AERC’s mandate and strategic mission are founded on the belief that sustained development in Sub-Saharan Africa necessitates well-trained, locally based professional economists. AERC is a highly integrated knowledge organization spanning research, training, and policy outreach with a vast network of universities, policymakers, researchers, educators, and international resource persons. The technical workshop will provide a unique opportunity for instructors to impart their analytical skills to a diverse group of African researchers and play a crucial role in shaping the future of African economic policies by developing robust methodological capacity.
In line with its mission to build and strengthen capacity and generate policy-relevant economics research for informed policymaking on the continent, guided by rigor and evidence, AERC is organizing a technical workshop on panel and time series econometrics funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) Human Capital Development (HCD) Project. The technical workshop aims to improve the researchers’ competency and provide an exciting learning opportunity, fostering growth and development. It supports informed policymaking in these countries by building the analytical capacity of researchers to conduct rigorous and policy-relevant research. It also aims to enhance the quality of the methodological execution and results obtained in their data analysis. The hybrid workshop, which will take place from September 23 to October 4, 2024 in Nairobi, Kenya, and will include physical and online participants, ensures that the training is accessible to a wide range of potential researchers.
The technical workshop will cover a comprehensive range of practical topics, ensuring the participants are well-equipped and prepared for their research. These topics, which are designed to be immediately applicable to researchers work, include practical applications of time series and panel data, time series models and estimation methods, innovation in time series models, AI and ML in economics and econometrics, catastrophic modeling (within financial econometrics), economic forecasting, spatial econometrics, and Bayesian econometrics. Panel data: static models, dynamic models with short or long time series dimension, nonlinear panel models, synthetic control and inference, Bayesian treatments for panel data stochastic frontier models.
Terms of reference
The terms of reference for the instructor include the following tasks.
- Prepare the workshop agenda and technical prospectus to be used in the workshop.
- Prepare relevant materials, documentation, and software for the workshop.
- Lead the discussions and provide the participants extensive exposure to practical issues in panel and time series econometrics and presentation skills where possible.
- Prepare a report on the proceedings of the workshop.
- Perform any other activities as mutually agreed upon between the instructor and AERC.
Selection Criteria
The instructor(s) will be selected based on the following criteria.
- A PhD degree in Economics
- Published in internationally peer-reviewed journals in the last 5 years (for a guide, please see the top 100 journals in the SCIMAGO list or the 2/3/4-star ABS 2021 journal list)
- Experience in teaching at the graduate degree level
- Experience in supervision of PhD thesis to completion and refereeing for international journals
- Experience in offering similar courses to advanced or post-doctoral researchers
- Practical knowledge in collecting and using time series, panel, and survey data
- Proficiency in econometric software (e.g., STATA, R, LIMDEP, EVIEWS, etc.)
- A brief outline of what will be covered in the workshop.
- Good command of both English and French languages will be an added advantage.
Additional information
More information on the training is as follows:
- Number of participants – 30 Physical and 20 online.
- The training will be conducted in a physical and online hybrid format, and the trainer must ensure effective network connectivity.
- The participants will use their computers/AERC provide software to all participants.
- The full set of materials prepared for the course will be available via a OneDrive link that will be shared with the participants.
- Daily sessions start at 8:00 a.m. and end at about 5:00 p.m., with a lunch break of about one hour and two health breaks of about 30 minutes each. This information should help devise an appropriate breakdown and the course components for each day.
- The instructor will provide all the course materials and practice datasets for uniformity.
AERC invites instructors to express their interest in offering this course to AERC’s current and potential network researchers. To express your interest in offering the course, kindly send your CV by email to procurement@aercafrica.org and a copy to research@aercafrica.org, outlining your experience in teaching the course and proficiency in using econometric software (specifying the type of software). The AERC procurement unit will evaluate your expression of interest, and we will let you know the outcome two weeks after the deadline.
AERC will offer a moderate honorarium for the services provided during that period, including the time required to prepare the course and mentor the researchers.
If you are interested, kindly respond by August 23, 2024