Comic-Book Econometrics

We often hear the term "Cookbook Econometrics" - usually used in a derogatory sense - and I've posted on this topic in the past. "Comic-Book Econometrics" is something completely different. It relates to a particular econometrics computing package, and a comic that I keep in my office.

No connection? Let's see......

A Visual Proof That OLS is BLU

Back in the day (as they say), we had monochrome monitors on our P.C.'s. Do you remember the ghastly green or weird amber colours? Then, one bright day everything became multi-coloured! This is not just me reminiscing - this is leading up to an innovative proof of the Gauss-Markhov Theorem. Honestly!

In a post yesterday, I mentioned Ken White's sense of humour - that's Ken White, "The SHAZAM Man", as my kids used to affectionately call him. On one of his many visits in the late 1980's, Ken offered to give a talk to a group of students about using the SHAZAM econometrics package. (We had no money for software at the time, but thanks to Ken's outstanding generosity we always had the latest version of his package for everyone to use.)

The Frequent Regressor Club

My friend, Ken White, developed the SHAZAM econometrics package in 1977. Ken's a funny guy - that's to say, he has a great sense of humour.

On one of his many visits to Christchurch, New Zealand (when I was living there, many years ago) he gave me a wooden die that he'd had an artisan carve at the local Arts Centre in Chistchurch. On each of the six faces he'd had the guy put the name of an econometrics/statistics package - TSP, LIMDEP, GAUSS, RATS, and SHAZAM. Yes, I know that's only 5 names. The thing was, SHAZAM appeared on two of the faces! The idea was to roll the die to decide which package to use in your lab. class. I still have the die - much to the occasional bemusement of students who see it on my desk.