Category Econometrics
Do economics majors need to learn Excel?
My first job after finishing my undergraduate degree in economics involved using Lotus 1-2-3 – the first "killer app" spreadsheet program – to create graphs. I'd never been taught to use a spreadsheet, but I worked it out. Fast forward a couple of decades. Spreadsheets are ubiquitious in the workplace. When a new research assistant […]
Test driving Canada’s new open data portal
Canada, following the lead of the US (http://data.gov), the UK (http://data.gov.uk/), and Australia (http://www.ands.org.au/) has created a new open data portal, http://data.gc.ca. The data portal contains all of Statistics Canada's CANSIM data, as well as data from the Department of Finance, Health Canada, Environment Canada, Transport Canada, Citizen and Immigration Canada, and so on. To try […]
Teen Sex and Econometrics
The Canadian Community Health Survey asks respondents "In the past 12 months, have you had sexual intercourse?". The overwhelming majority of 18 to 19 years, when asked that question, answered….
Anke Kessler on the effects of robocalls on voter turnout
One of the (many!) important questions raised by the robocall scandal is whether or not the deceptive calls did in fact achieve their presumed goal of inducing supporters of opposition parties to stay home and not vote. If you look at riding-level data, there's not much to see. But Simon Fraser University's Anke Kessler has […]
A preliminary estimate for Canadian 2011Q4 GDP growth
This is a bit late. I ran – but forgot to post – my quarterly attempt to provide an estimate for quarterly GDP growth a month before Statistics Canada releases its first estimates (most recent exercise is here). This is done by using simple linear regression model of monthly GDP growth on monthly LFS data […]
Why we should be paying more attention to the SEPH employment numbers
The first Friday of every month is Employment Data Day in Canada and the US. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics releases employment data from its Current Population Survey (CPS – the household survey) and its Current Employment Statistics survey (CES – the payroll or establishment survey). For reasons I'll get into later, the establishment […]
Putting the Econ into Econometrics
I have the 1988 and 2009 editions Gujarati and Porter's Basic Econometrics in front of me. Chapter 1 has been updated for the 21st century: The Internet has literally revolutionized data gathering. If you just "surf the net" with a keyword (e.g. exchange rates), you will be swamped with all kinds of data sources. In […]
A preliminary estimate for Canadian 2011Q3 GDP growth
The August 2011 GDP numbers are out, so it's time for my quarterly attempt to provide an estimate for quarterly GDP growth a month before Statistics Canada releases its first estimates – the most recent exercise is here. This is done by using simple linear regression model of monthly GDP growth on monthly LFS data […]
In applied economic research, what actually matters?
"his friend Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien; and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year." Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. Taller men are more desirable marriage partners. One theory […]
James Hamilton on Christopher Sims and identifying monetary policy “shocks”
I am not an econometrician. I'm not very good at econometrics. Read this post in that light. I think that what some econometricians are doing is horribly wrong. They are making a wildly implausible assumption. I want to give my reactions to what James Hamilton said about what Christopher Sims said. James is nicely clear.
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