Extracting the Correct Mean(ing) From the Data

We've all taken, and/or taught, an introductory course in descriptive statistics where we encounter measures of "central tendency", variability, summarizing grouped data, and so on. In such courses students are usually told about three ways of calculating the mean, or average, of a sample. These are the Arithmetic Mean, Geometric Mean, and Harmonic Mean. In my experience, economists often fail to use the most appropriate of these three measures. I think this is because often we don't provide enough motivation and explanation in those introductory courses.

In Praise of the Quick Retort

I don't know about you, but I'm highly envious of people who seem to be able to come up with the perfect retort, seemingly without even thinking. I tend to be of those who thinks of (what I consider to be) just the right remark - about 2 hours after it's needed! You could say I'm not that quick on my feet.

Granger Chair in Econometrics

Belated congratulations to Andres Santos and  Brendan Beare who were named in November as the inaugural co-holders of the Sir Clive W. J. Granger Endowed Chair in Econometrics, at the University of California, San Diego.

One of the really great things about this new Chair is that it's being used to support younger members of faculty in the UCSD Dept. of Economics. Santos and Beare are currently Assistant Professors there.

© 2012, David E. Giles

C. R. Rao

Earlier this year, Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao received the Guy Medal in Gold, from the Royal Statistical Society. A statistician of world renown - indeed an icon in the profession - C. R. Rao is one of the last survivors of the "Golden Age of Statistics".

Cracking the Code of the Effective Exchange Rate

This is a post about using econometrics to crack a code. While this may seem a little strange, it's based on a true story, and it relates to the "effective exchange rate".

The Sage on the Stage

As a new teaching semester gets underway, it's interesting to ask: "Is there still a case to be made for the traditional academic lecture as an effective aid to learning?" 

New Year Resolutions

Well, here we go again! It's time of year that we make all of those resolutions - the ones that usually get broken before the holiday decorations have been packed away. Not this year, though!

Congratulations to Donald Fraser!

Canadian statistical icon, Donald A. S. Fraser, has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada (O.C.) in the New Year's Honours list that was announced yesterday. Fraser has been Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Toronto since 1949, and he's received numerous international awards. His highly influential work has resulted in seven books and over 250 peer-reviewed papers (see his c.v.), and he has supervised 55 Ph.D. students.

Officers of the Order of Canada are appointed for their "lifetime of achievement and merit of a high degree, especially in service to Canada or to humanity at large."

How appropriate!

© 2011, David E. Giles

BIG Data

"Big Data" = data that come in amounts that are too large for current computer hardware and software to deal with. That sounds like fun!

When is the OLS estimator BLU?

Or, if you prefer, "When do the OLS and GLS estimators coincide?"

O.K., so you think you know the answer to this one? My guess is that you know a sufficient condition, but probably not a necessary and sufficient condition, for the OLS and GLS estimators of the coefficient vector in a linear regression model to coincide. Let's see if I'm right!