Ph.D. candidate in economics at UC Berkeley, on the job market in 2026–27. Political economy and development economics. Portrait of Jonathan Old

Teaching materials

Course evaluations, slides, and code from the courses I have taught at UC Berkeley.

A few examples of the visualizations I use to teach undergraduate applied econometrics:

This animation shows the consequences of measurement error in the independent variable in an OLS regression. As the random measurement error increases, the estimated slope becomes flatter - this is called attenuation bias.

Measurement error

The figure visualizes how omitted variable bias works in a simple wage-education-ability framework. Just looking at the correlation between education and wages, we could conclude that higher education leads to higher wages. However, in this case, the association purely comes from the fact that higher ability is correlated with both more education and higher wages. Seen in three dimensions makes this clear.

Omitted variable bias visualized

This images shows the Central Limit Theorem in action. We throw a number of dice and record the mean opf all these dice 100,000 times. As we increase the number of dice thrown in a single time from 1 to 50, the distribution of the overall means becomes more and more similar to a normal distribution.

Central Limit Theorem in Action

 

 

Course evaluations

I have taught Econ 140 (Applied Econometrics) as a Graduate Student Instructor at UC Berkeley every semester since Fall 2022, two sections a term. The official University evaluation report for each section is below; each one gives the full rating distribution, the departmental mean for comparison, and every written comment. I received an Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award for my teaching in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023.

Section materials

Slides and code from the terms where I wrote my own section materials.

Fall 2023: Undergraduate Applied Econometrics (Econ 140)

Spring 2023: Undergraduate Applied Econometrics (Econ 140)

Fall 2022: Undergraduate Applied Econometrics (Econ 140)