Category Archives: Econometrics

Calculate OLS estimator manually in R

February 20, 2016 AV 4 Comments

This post shows how to manually construct the OLS estimator in R (see this post for the exact mathematical derivation of the OLS estimator). The code will go through each single step of the calculation and estimate the coefficients, standard errors and p-values. In case you are interested the coding an OLS function rather than in the step wise calculation of the estimation itself I recommend you to have a look at this post. Continue reading Calculate OLS estimator manually in R →

Econometrics

CLRM – Assumption 5: Normal Distributed Error Terms in Population

February 9, 2016 AV 5 Comments

Assumption 5 is often listed as a Gauss-Markov assumption and refers to normally distributed error terms $\epsilon$ in the population. Overall, assumption 5 is not a Gauss-Markov assumption in that sense that the OLS estimator will still be the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE) even if the error terms $\epsilon$ are not normally distributed in the population. Continue reading CLRM – Assumption 5: Normal Distributed Error Terms in Population →

Econometrics

Violation of CLRM – Assumption 4.1: Consequences when the expected value of the error term is non-zero

February 7, 2016 AV 2 Comments

Violating assumption 4.1 of the OLS assumptions, i.e. $E(\epsilon_i|X) = 0$ , can affect our estimation in various ways. The exact ways a violation affects our estimates depends on the way we violate $E(\epsilon_i|X) = 0$ . This post looks at different cases and elaborates on the consequences of the violation. We start with a less severe case and then continue discussing a far more sensitive violation of assumption 4.1. Continue reading Violation of CLRM – Assumption 4.1: Consequences when the expected value of the error term is non-zero →

Econometrics

CLRM – Assumption 4: Independent and Identically Distributed Error Terms

February 6, 2016 AV 11 Comments

Assumption 4 of the four assumption required by the Gauss-Markov theorem states that the error terms of the population $\epsilon_{i}$ are independent and identically distributed (iid) with an expected value of zero and a constant variance $\sigma^{2}$ . Formally, Continue reading CLRM – Assumption 4: Independent and Identically Distributed Error Terms →

Econometrics, Mathematical Proofs

Proof Gauss Markov Theorem

February 5, 2016 AV 1 Comment

From a previous posts on the Gauss Markov Theorem and OLS we know that the assumption of unbiasedness must full fill the following condition Continue reading Proof Gauss Markov Theorem →

Econometrics

CLRM – Assumption 3: Explanatory Variables must be exogenous

January 30, 2016 AV 7 Comments

Assumption 3, exogeneity of explanatory variables requires that the explanatory variables $X$ in the model do not explain variation in the error terms, formally we express assumption 3 as Continue reading CLRM – Assumption 3: Explanatory Variables must be exogenous →

Econometrics

CLRM – Assumption 2: Full Rank of Matrix X

January 13, 2016 AV 9 Comments

Assumption 2 requires the matrix of explanatory variables $X$ to have full rank. This means that in case matrix $X$ is a $N \times K$ matrix the rank of matrix $X$ is $K$ . Namely, $Rank(X) = K$

Continue reading CLRM – Assumption 2: Full Rank of Matrix X →

Econometrics

CLRM – Assumption 1: Linear Parameter and correct model specification

August 21, 2015 AV 9 Comments

Assumption 1 requires that the dependent variable $\textbf{y}$ is a linear combination of the explanatory variables $\textbf{X}$ and the error terms $\epsilon$ . Assumption 1 requires the specified model to be linear in parameters, but it does not require the model to be linear in variables. Equation 1 and 2 depict a model which is both, linear in parameter and variables. Note that Equation 1 and 2 show the same model in different notation.

Continue reading CLRM – Assumption 1: Linear Parameter and correct model specification →

Econometrics, Mathematical Proofs, Statistics

Unbiased Estimator of Sample Variance – Vol. 2

April 1, 2015 AV 11 Comments

Lately I received some criticism saying that my proof (link to proof) on the unbiasedness of the estimator for the sample variance strikes through its unnecessary length. Well, as I am an economist and love proofs which read like a book, I never really saw the benefit of bowling down a proof to a couple of lines. Actually, I hate it if I have to brew over a proof for an hour before I clearly understand what’s going on. However, in order to satisfy the need for mathematical beauty, I looked around and found the following proof which is way shorter than my original version.

Continue reading Unbiased Estimator of Sample Variance – Vol. 2 →

Econometrics

Assumptions of Classical Linear Regression Models (CLRM)

April 1, 2015 AV 30 Comments

The following post will give a short introduction about the underlying assumptions of the classical linear regression model (OLS assumptions), which we derived in the following post. Given the Gauss-Markov Theorem we know that the least squares estimator $b_{0}$ and $b_{1}$ are unbiased and have minimum variance among all unbiased linear estimators. The Gauss-Markov Theorem is telling us that in a regression model, where the expected value of our error terms is zero, $E(\epsilon_{i}) = 0$ and variance of the error terms is constant and finite $\sigma^{2}(\epsilon_{i}) = \sigma^{2} \textless \infty$ and $\epsilon_{i}$ and $\epsilon_{j}$ are uncorrelated for all $i$ and $j$ the least squares estimator $b_{0}$ and $b_{1}$ are unbiased and have minimum variance among all unbiased linear estimators. (A detailed proof of the Gauss-Markov Theorem can be found here)