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Heckman Correction
The Heckman correction is a statistical technique to correct bias from non-randomly selected samples or otherwise incidentally truncated dependent variables, a pervasive issue in quantitative social sciences when using observational data. Conceptually, this is achieved by explicitly modelling the individual sampling probability of each observation (the so-called selection equation) together with the conditional expectation of the dependent variable (the so-called outcome equation). The resulting likelihood function is mathematically similar to the tobit model for censored dependent variables, a connection first drawn by James Heckman in 1974. Heckman also developed a two-step control function approach to estimate this model, which avoids the computational burden of having to estimate both equations jointly, albeit at the cost of inefficiency. Heckman received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2000 for his work in this field. Method Statistical analyses based on ...
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Bias (statistics)
Statistical bias is a systematic tendency which causes differences between results and facts. The bias exists in numbers of the process of data analysis, including the source of the data, the estimator chosen, and the ways the data was analyzed. Bias may have a serious impact on results, for example, to investigate people's buying habits. If the sample size is not large enough, the results may not be representative of the buying habits of all the people. That is, there may be discrepancies between the survey results and the actual results. Therefore, understanding the source of statistical bias can help to assess whether the observed results are close to the real results. Bias can be differentiated from other mistakes such as accuracy (instrument failure/inadequacy), lack of data, or mistakes in transcription (typos). Bias implies that the data selection may have been skewed by the collection criteria. Bias does not preclude the existence of any other mistakes. One may have a po ...
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Economics Letters
Economics Letters is a scholarly peer-reviewed journal of economics that publishes concise communications (letters) that provide a means of rapid and efficient dissemination of new results, models and methods in all fields of economic research. Published by Elsevier. The journal was established in 1978 and the current editors-in-chief are Badi H. Baltagi (Syracuse University), Joao F. Gomes (Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania), Costas Meghir (Yale University), Pierre-Daniel Sarte, (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond) and Roberto Serrano ( Brown University). According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2020 impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a scientometric index calculated by Clarivate that reflects the yearly mean number of citations of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as ... of 2.097. References External links * Economics journals Elsevier academic jo ...
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Two-step M-estimator
Two-step M-estimators deals with M-estimation problems that require preliminary estimation to obtain the parameter of interest. Two-step M-estimation is different from usual M-estimation problem because asymptotic distribution of the second-step estimator generally depends on the first-step estimator. Accounting for this change in asymptotic distribution is important for valid inference. Description The class of two-step M-estimators includes Heckman's sample selection estimator, weighted non-linear least squares, and ordinary least squares with generated regressors.Wooldridge, J.M., Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. To fix ideas, let \^n_ \subseteq R^d be an i.i.d. sample. \Theta and \Gamma are subsets of Euclidean spaces R^p and R^q , respectively. Given a function m(;;;): R^d \times \Theta \times \Gamma\rightarrow R , two-step M-estimator \hat\theta is defined as: :\hat \theta:=\arg\max_\frac\sum_m\bigl(W_,\theta,\hat\gamm ...
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Ordinary Least Squares
In statistics, ordinary least squares (OLS) is a type of linear least squares method for choosing the unknown parameters in a linear regression model (with fixed level-one effects of a linear function of a set of explanatory variables) by the principle of least squares: minimizing the sum of the squares of the differences between the observed dependent variable (values of the variable being observed) in the input dataset and the output of the (linear) function of the independent variable. Geometrically, this is seen as the sum of the squared distances, parallel to the axis of the dependent variable, between each data point in the set and the corresponding point on the regression surface—the smaller the differences, the better the model fits the data. The resulting estimator can be expressed by a simple formula, especially in the case of a simple linear regression, in which there is a single regressor on the right side of the regression equation. The OLS estimator is con ...
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Omitted-variables Bias
In statistics, omitted-variable bias (OVB) occurs when a statistical model leaves out one or more relevant variables. The bias results in the model attributing the effect of the missing variables to those that were included. More specifically, OVB is the bias that appears in the estimates of parameters in a regression analysis, when the assumed specification is incorrect in that it omits an independent variable that is a determinant of the dependent variable and correlated with one or more of the included independent variables. In linear regression Intuition Suppose the true cause-and-effect relationship is given by: :y=a+bx+cz+u with parameters ''a, b, c'', dependent variable ''y'', independent variables ''x'' and ''z'', and error term ''u''. We wish to know the effect of ''x'' itself upon ''y'' (that is, we wish to obtain an estimate of ''b''). Two conditions must hold true for omitted-variable bias to exist in linear regression: * the omitted variable must be a dete ...
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Inverse Mills Ratio
In probability theory, the Mills ratio (or Mills's ratio) of a continuous random variable X is the function : m(x) := \frac , where f(x) is the probability density function, and :\bar(x) := \Pr x">>x= \int_x^ f(u)\, du is the complementary cumulative distribution function (also called survival function). The concept is named after John P. Mills. The Mills ratio is related to the hazard rate ''h''(''x'') which is defined as :h(x):=\lim_ \frac\Pr x/math> by :m(x) = \frac. Example If X has standard normal distribution then :m(x) \sim 1/x , \, where the sign \sim means that the quotient of the two functions converges to 1 as x\to+\infty, see Q-function for details. More precise asymptotics can be given. Inverse Mills ratio The inverse Mills ratio is the ratio of the probability density function to the complementary cumulative distribution function of a distribution. Its use is often motivated by the following property of the truncated normal distribution. If ''X'' is a ...
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Multivariate Normal Distribution
In probability theory and statistics, the multivariate normal distribution, multivariate Gaussian distribution, or joint normal distribution is a generalization of the one-dimensional ( univariate) normal distribution to higher dimensions. One definition is that a random vector is said to be ''k''-variate normally distributed if every linear combination of its ''k'' components has a univariate normal distribution. Its importance derives mainly from the multivariate central limit theorem. The multivariate normal distribution is often used to describe, at least approximately, any set of (possibly) correlated real-valued random variables each of which clusters around a mean value. Definitions Notation and parameterization The multivariate normal distribution of a ''k''-dimensional random vector \mathbf = (X_1,\ldots,X_k)^ can be written in the following notation: : \mathbf\ \sim\ \mathcal(\boldsymbol\mu,\, \boldsymbol\Sigma), or to make it explicitly known that ''X ...
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Errors And Residuals In Statistics
In statistics and optimization, errors and residuals are two closely related and easily confused measures of the deviation of an observed value of an element of a statistical sample from its " true value" (not necessarily observable). The error of an observation is the deviation of the observed value from the true value of a quantity of interest (for example, a population mean). The residual is the difference between the observed value and the '' estimated'' value of the quantity of interest (for example, a sample mean). The distinction is most important in regression analysis, where the concepts are sometimes called the regression errors and regression residuals and where they lead to the concept of studentized residuals. In econometrics, "errors" are also called disturbances. Introduction Suppose there is a series of observations from a univariate distribution and we want to estimate the mean of that distribution (the so-called location model). In this case, the errors ar ...
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Cumulative Distribution Function
In probability theory and statistics, the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of a real-valued random variable X, or just distribution function of X, evaluated at x, is the probability that X will take a value less than or equal to x. Every probability distribution supported on the real numbers, discrete or "mixed" as well as continuous, is uniquely identified by an ''upwards continuous'' ''monotonic increasing'' cumulative distribution function F : \mathbb R \rightarrow ,1/math> satisfying \lim_F(x)=0 and \lim_F(x)=1. In the case of a scalar continuous distribution, it gives the area under the probability density function from minus infinity to x. Cumulative distribution functions are also used to specify the distribution of multivariate random variables. Definition The cumulative distribution function of a real-valued random variable X is the function given by where the right-hand side represents the probability that the random variable X takes on a value less ...
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Probit
In probability theory and statistics, the probit function is the quantile function associated with the standard normal distribution. It has applications in data analysis and machine learning, in particular exploratory statistical graphics and specialized regression modeling of binary response variables. Mathematically, the probit is the inverse of the cumulative distribution function of the standard normal distribution, which is denoted as \Phi(z), so the probit is defined as :\operatorname(p) = \Phi^(p) \quad \text \quad p \in (0,1). Largely because of the central limit theorem, the standard normal distribution plays a fundamental role in probability theory and statistics. If we consider the familiar fact that the standard normal distribution places 95% of probability between −1.96 and 1.96, and is symmetric around zero, it follows that :\Phi(-1.96) = 0.025 = 1-\Phi(1.96).\,\! The probit function gives the 'inverse' computation, generating a value of a standard normal ...
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Economic Theory
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes what's viewed as basic elements in the economy, including individual agents and markets, their interactions, and the outcomes of interactions. Individual agents may include, for example, households, firms, buyers, and sellers. Macroeconomics analyzes the economy as a system where production, consumption, saving, and investment interact, and factors affecting it: employment of the resources of labour, capital, and land, currency inflation, economic growth, and public policies that have impact on these elements. Other broad distinctions within economics include those between positive economics, describing "what is", and normative economics, advocating "what ought to be"; between economic theory and applied economics; between rationa ...
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Normal Distribution
In statistics, a normal distribution or Gaussian distribution is a type of continuous probability distribution for a real-valued random variable. The general form of its probability density function is : f(x) = \frac e^ The parameter \mu is the mean or expectation of the distribution (and also its median and mode), while the parameter \sigma is its standard deviation. The variance of the distribution is \sigma^2. A random variable with a Gaussian distribution is said to be normally distributed, and is called a normal deviate. Normal distributions are important in statistics and are often used in the natural and social sciences to represent real-valued random variables whose distributions are not known. Their importance is partly due to the central limit theorem. It states that, under some conditions, the average of many samples (observations) of a random variable with finite mean and variance is itself a random variable—whose distribution converges to a normal dist ...
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