The primary objective of the fourth edition of Essentials of Econometrics is to provide a user-friendly introduction to econometric theory and techniques. This text provides a simple and straightforward introduction to econometrics for the beginner. The
As an introduction to econometrics this book is fantastic. You won't get the finer points of the statistics to be a true pro. That said, this book covers all the major bases. I used it more than many of the statistic books I had, because the manner of speaking intonates application more than theory.
If I were teaching a class, this would be a wonderful text to use and then as a compendium, also use a text that gave a deeper mathematical treatment for the students who need that sort of depth.
A professor once told me that you either need a good professor or a good book to learn a subject. My introduction to econometrics was rocky to say the least. I thought I had some sort of learning deficiency after taking the course which did not fit with the rest of results I had in academia. I later learned what difference a good econometrics text and teacher made. In my humble opinion, Gujarati failed to go deeper and give more examples on all of the occasions that I wasn't grasping a topic.