The field sequence 574-5 in econometrics is designed to give students a working knowledge of a broad array of current topics in econometric theory and prepare them for empirical applications near the research frontier. In the first course, 574, we intend to focus the first half of the course on asymptotic methods and the study of the large-sample behavior of econometric procedures supplemented by an introduction to monte carlo methods. The second half of the course will be devoted to recent developments in semi-parametric methods in econometrics.