Status Updates From Introductory Econometrics F...

Second differentiation

Differentiation

Logarithm

Finally a good explanation of quadratic equations for the first time in my life. And now I know!

When I was a student I used to think that research was a very pure science. Now having first hand experience, I know that this is not the case. Researchers often cut corners, exaggerate or fall victim to biases. Therefore it is important to cast a very critical eye over each scientific article.

The process of building a robust empirical model is an iterative one and it is certainly not an exact science. Different researchers with the same data and the same initial theory could arrive at different final specifications.

The number of observations available for analysis can potentially be very huge-- perhaps thousands or even millions, making financial data the envy of macro-economitricians. The implication is that more powerful techniques can often be applied to financial than economic data, and that researchers may also have more confidence in the results.

Learning econometrics is in many ways like learning a new language. at first nothing makes sense, there is a lot of unfamiliar terminology and the notations may make the situation appear more complex, but it is a matter of learning enough of the language that everything fits.