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Lecture Slides:      Powerpoint     PDF

Learning Objectives

• Articulate what it means to “get the model right”
• Learn transformations that can turn a misspecified model into a well- specified model
• Test for nonlinearities in an econometric model

Examples

• Moving off the Farm

What We Learned

• An econometric model will almost never be literally right in the sense that it describes precisely how one variable depends on a set of other variables.
  • A good econometric model is as simple as possible and fits the data well.
• Taking logs of the variables, fitting a polynomial, adding interaction terms, and adding right-hand-side variables are easy ways to improve model specification.