Tag Archives: econometrics

Social behavior VS Individual behavior

Well, recently I'm focusing on an interesting model --social network and thinking about an old issue --social behavior. The social network model is really attractive (if it can be regarded as a model, or more exactly, a theory), especially for people like me who are wondering the traditional assumptions in classical economics while trying to borrow something from other subjects, like sociology.

Using complex network as a mathematical tool, the social network model includes so many factors that cannot be described in the past. Well, I should admit here that I haven't taken any related courses yet, and all I know about sociology are inherited from some unprofessional books. I should also admit that I was really attracted by behavior economics last winter, but until now had I started to "study" it in an academic way. Maybe the reasons are pretty simple: first, I was busying applying for postgraduate study positions last winter; second, there was not a good teacher who was able to teach this course; third, I have no idea about which book (or textbook) should be chosen as an introductory one.

Well, I need some time to make it clear in my mind that how social network works. However,  I've got a much easier question yet. That is, in traditional macroeconomic models, like the Lucas' island model, when we are trying to calculate the sum of all individual's save, at most time we simply add them together, (i.e. a*N, where N is the number of population).  However, I think at least the individual's save should be regarded as a stochastic variable (e.g follows a normal distribution, or Brownian movement), so the sum should also follow a normal distribution. Well, in econometrics we do not need to worry about this question. But I wonder whether it would be valuable if we can make this small change.

In the example above, I want to figure out that the micro-foundations for macroeconomics should be dug more deeply in order to persuade readers.  Borrowing some mature conclusions from other fields, this task shall be easier. Alternatively, economists should make an effort (maybe something can be found from data) to know more about the relationships between individual behavior and social behaviors, thereby establishing a proper model to describe them. Personally speaking, the study of social network may be helpful, since different from other social science, at least it has a mathematical model...And the diffusion of information can be easily introduced into macroeconomic models in this way...WoW!

Beginning: Play Econometrics with R

More than  a month without updating... Yes, I was busy doing something else, and that was traveling. I was lucky enough to enjoy a period of free time, and relaxed myself pretty well.

Now it is the time to start something useful, since the spring festival has gone. I need to be responsible for my promise. Therefore, I choose to begin to write the brochure about econometrics and R, the most up-to date statistic software.

Name

Play Econometrics with R

I use "play" to avoid being responsible for any potential academic faults 🙂 Indeed, I will correct the bugs as soon as I know.

Aim

In this brochure, I'll introduce typical econometric methods one by one and their realization in R. Of course, a huge volume of examples and data will appear (and that is the most knotty problem for me at the moment). I'll cover some public examples (i.e. published ones from current books,  e.g Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach by Jeffrey M. Wooldridge), and also some meaningful ones (applications in different fields) from scholar articles with data published. I should admit it is a really challenging task, and I need many helps from friends.

Readers

I hope this brochure can be helpful for those groups:

  • the statistics students who begin to know and  use econometrics, especially for economic problems.
  • the economics students who want to improve their analysis with a more powerful tool -- R, instead of Stata or SPSS.

This brochure will help the first group see how econometrics functions in economic analysis, and will bring introductory guide for the second group.

Remarks

More features needed to be announced here:

  • This brochure is totally free, and will published regularly on the Internet. If possible, it will be realized with the help through Git of Cos.name, the biggest online statistics community in China.
  • I'll use Latex (Lyx) + Sweave + R as my tools. For more information about this combination, please see here (in Chinese from Yihui's Blog) .
  • At present, this brochure will be written in Chinese (I'm really sorry). But after several revisions, and if anyone calls for needs, I will rewrite another version in English.

A speech on econometrics and R

From next week I'll go to Beijing and Shanghai respectively to give a speech on R. Yesterday I just finished the beamer for presentation in English. Not very long, because I'm afraid of making any serious mistakes.

Here I would like to list the outline.

Topic:

From Economics to R --Using R in Economics and Econometrics

(At first it was "Using R in Economics, Statistics and Econometrics". However, I think it is no good to mention "statistics" since I'm not professional in that area. The same to "economic statistics". Therefore I only mention economics and econometrics instead eventually.)

Outline:

1 Economics and Statistics

  • The Irreplaceable Support
  • Software about econometrics

2 Main Econometric Methods

  • Similar to statistics
  • Realization in R

3 Now Work with R!

  • Transfer the Data
  • Cooperate with LATEX
  • My own experience

Maybe the outline is a little too simple, but in fact I don't have too much to talk, since I'm a beginner of economics and R myself. I really appreciate the opportunity to give a speech on the 2nd Chinese R Conference, and I do hope that there will all right. Anyway, I have no better choice but do my best.

A more detailed post may appear after the lecture.

[2010.02. 20 Updated]