A Note on the Use of “AI”-Tools (like ChatGPT) in Econometrics Courses

AI-tools can be very helpful for gathering information (like an advanced search engine) and for executing simple tasks (like a research assistant). However, it is important that students build some foundational knowledge in econometrics, as it is necessary to conduct valuable economic analyses*. How else to know what to even ask ChatGPT or how to interpret its responses?! Sure, someone who’s never heard of econometrics could still pass on a question they received to the AI-tool and let it explain in detail, but this would amount to learning econometrics then, with the AI. The bottom line is that you must learn it eventually (except if you don’t care about economics, in which case you’re at the wrong place), and for this there are, in my experience, better sources than AI-tools (though the AI-tools are possibly good complements).

Given that the foundational econometrics topics we discuss are common knowledge (and generally rather simple in the grand scheme of things out there), it is likely that AI-tools can answer most Problem Set (PS) questions satisfactorily. This is why I prefer to rely on exams and (individual) term papers for assessing student performance; in the former, no AI-tool is available, and in the latter, students have to perform an actual, in-depth economic analysis* of some research question, and for that, as stated above, AI-tools can be very useful help.

In this environment, PSs are more like homework that helps students prepare for the exam or for writing a term paper (and, ultimately, for doing economic analyses* later in life). Yes, you can copy-paste from an AI-tool – just as you always could copy from other students –, but you do this at your own risk. You would diminish your skills necessary for writing a good exam or term paper. In line with that, in my courses, PSs account for only a small portion of the grade, and their grading scheme is very generous, so you won’t be punished for imperfectly solving things yourself. (Also, the grading scheme is crude and rewards conciseness, so the teaching assistant doesn’t have to read in detail through all the verbose and repetitive answers that some students and all AI-tools tend to produce.)

*By this I mean both (a) empirical economic analyses that use econometric methods as tools, as well as (b) econometric analyses that aim at developing methods further.