Vintage Years in Econometrics - The 1960's

Remember that saying - "if you can remember the 60's you probably weren't there"? Well, with that said, and continuing from my earlier posts about vintage years for econometrics in the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's, here's my take on the 1960's.

Once again, let me note that "in econometrics, what constitutes quality and importance is partly a matter of taste - just like wine! So, not all of you will agree with the choices I've made in the following compilation."

What's Your Favourite Estimator?

It's interesting to dwell on the popularity of different estimators that econometricians use. Some estimators are "in vogue" for a period, and then give way to others as new developments come along. Different topics have captured the attention of theoreticians and practitioners alike at different times in history.

Here's a Google Ngram showing the extent to which some familiar estimators for simultaneous equations models have been mentioned in books since 1960:

Not too surprisingly, good old OLS just goes on and on:

I was going to include the GMM estimator in these plots, but this acronym has meanings other than the obvious one that comes to mind. So, the results would have been misleading. To be safe, let's use the full phrase Generalized Method of Moments and allow for case sensitivity:

Interestingly, the phrase appeared in some books before the publication of Hansen's classic 1982 paper.

© 2013, David E. Giles

Statisticians in History

Today is the birth date of Gertrude M. Cox (1900 - 1978).

The American Statistical Association has a web site titled, "Statisticians in History". The section of that site that I especially like is the one that provides biographical information about a number of influential statisticians.

Students of econometrics will find a wealth of interesting material in many of these bios. It`s always fun to "put a face to the name", and in a sense, this is one way to do it. So, yes, Gertrude Cox was born on 13 January 1900. She was the first Chair of the Department of Experimental Statistics at N.C. State. Read her bio., and you'll see for yourself what a pioneer she was.

Other entries that I especially recommend are those for Herman Hollerith, Jerzy Neyman, and John Tukey.

My personal favourite (for reasons that will be clear from earlier posts - here and here) is the interview with Arnold Zellner.

Enjoy!

© 2012, David E. Giles