Contemporary Data Science for Finance Students: A Comparative Study of Essential Features of Commonly Used Statistical Software

Madalina Viorica Manu,Ilie Vasile

doi:10.18775/ijied.1849-7551-7020.2015.62.2002

Abstract

In this paper, we compare some of the essential traits of the software preferred by researchers, students, and professors, such as R or RStudio, or Matlab. In order to fill the gap in the Romanian literature and help finance students in choosing proper tools according to the research purpose, this comparative study aims at bringing a fresh, useful perspective in the relevant literature. In Romania, the use of R was the focus of several international conferences on official statistics held in Bucharest, and others having business excellence, innovation, and sustainability as purpose, while Eviews is recommended and taught by the Romanian professors. At this time, at a global scale, R programming language is considered the lingua franca of data science, as common statistical software used both in corporations and academia. In this paper, I analyze the basic features of such software, with the purpose of application in finance.

Highlights

Data science teams, economists and corporations use a mix of languages, often, at least R and Python (R for Data Science n.d.)
In order to fill the gap in the Romanian literature and help finance students in choosing proper tools according to the research purpose, this comparative study aims at bringing a fresh, useful perspective in the relevant literature
In Romania, the use of R was the focus of several international conferences on official statistics held in Bucharest, and others having business excellence, innovation and sustainability as purpose, while Eviews is recommended and taught by the Romanian professors

Summary

Introduction

Economists and corporations use a mix of languages, often, at least R and Python (R for Data Science n.d.). The Python Programming Language ranks 4, climbing one step in the last year, while R is in ascension, ranking 10 in the popularity of programming languages; MATLAB programming language is falling, ranking the 18th. 1.1 Problem Statement Comparisons of finance problems solving using MATLAB, R or Eviews represent an area of research that is not yet developed, small steps have been made in Romania (Simionescu 2014). This research can / should be extended as there are books and many tutorials and courses for an in-depth study of software instruments for modeling and analyzing finance phenomena. Madalina Viorica Manu, Ilie Vasile Contemporary Data Science for Finance Students: A Comparative Study of Essential Features of Commonly Used Statistical Software

Literature Review

Research Methology

Findings

Conclusion and Recommendations