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Making Business Statistics Come Alive: Incorporating Field Trial Data from a Cookstove Study into the Classroom

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  • Simons, Andrew M.

Abstract

This paper describes how to incorporate data from a randomized controlled trial in rural Uganda into teaching an undergraduate business statistics course. The semester-length classroom exercise includes discussions and brainstorming sessions, which allow students to imagine how they would execute a field experiment and analyze the data. Students become familiar with one data set as they use it to supplement textbook examples of hypothesis testing, analysis of variance applications, and simple linear regression. The article discusses the background of the sustainability challenge of 2.8 billion people in the world cooking with solid fuels, the rollout and schedule of integrating field-experiment data into the classroom, and student evaluations of the exercise. The target audience is undergraduate statistics students and/or instructors interested in demonstrating how textbook statistics are used to better understand a real-world sustainability challenge.

Suggested Citation

  • Simons, Andrew M., 2020. "Making Business Statistics Come Alive: Incorporating Field Trial Data from a Cookstove Study into the Classroom," Applied Economics Teaching Resources (AETR), Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 2(3), July.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaeatr:303918
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.303918
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beltramo, Theresa & Blalock, Garrick & Levine, David I. & Simons, Andrew M., 2015. "The effect of marketing messages and payment over time on willingness to pay for fuel-efficient cookstoves," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 333-345.
    2. Gill, Jas, 1987. "Improved stoves in developing countries : A critique," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 135-144, April.
    3. David I Levine & Theresa Beltramo & Garrick Blalock & Carolyn Cotterman & Andrew M Simons, 2018. "What Impedes Efficient Adoption of Products? Evidence from Randomized Sales Offers for Fuel-Efficient Cookstoves in Uganda," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 16(6), pages 1850-1880.
    4. Harrell, Stephen & Beltramo, Theresa & Blalock, Garrick & Kyayesimira, Juliet & Levine, David I. & Simons, Andrew M., 2016. "What is a “meal”? Comparative methods of auditing carbon offset compliance for fuel-efficient cookstoves," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 8-16.
    5. Simons, Andrew M. & Beltramo, Theresa & Blalock, Garrick & Levine, David I., 2017. "Using unobtrusive sensors to measure and minimize Hawthorne effects: Evidence from cookstoves," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 68-80.
    6. Natalie J. Blades & G. Bruce Schaalje & William F. Christensen, 2015. "The Second Course in Statistics: Design and Analysis of Experiments?," The American Statistician, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(4), pages 326-333, November.
    7. Maes, Wouter H. & Verbist, Bruno, 2012. "Increasing the sustainability of household cooking in developing countries: Policy implications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 4204-4221.
    8. J. Hardin & R. Hoerl & Nicholas J. Horton & D. Nolan & B. Baumer & O. Hall-Holt & P. Murrell & R. Peng & P. Roback & D. Temple Lang & M. D. Ward, 2015. "Data Science in Statistics Curricula: Preparing Students to “Think with Data”," The American Statistician, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(4), pages 343-353, November.
    9. Smith, Kirk R. & Shuhua, Gu & Kun, Huang & Daxiong, Qiu, 1993. "One hundred million improved cookstoves in China: How was it done?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 941-961, June.
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