"Dale Glaser" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
001701c01f54$9aa51d40$1101a8c0@daleglas">news:001701c01f54$9aa51d40$1101a8c0@daleglas...
> Rich..for now citing Vogt, W. P. (1999) Dictionary of Statistics and
> Methodology....very similar to what you state below, econometrics is
defined
> as "(a) the application of statistical methods to economic data, usually
to
> forecast economic trends and decide among policies. (b) the branch of
> economics applying statistical models, often models based on multiple
> regression, to economic problem" (p. 93)..........so interestingly, at
least
> based on the definition, and as opposed to psychometrics, there doesn't
seem
> to be much emphasis on measurement................dale glaser
>
I would opine that the simple "the application of statistical methods to
econonomic data in order to test economic theory" should handle it. Really,
econometrics is a subset of statistics. Most good econometricians, in fact,
have joint appointments. Where E'trics differentiates itself from stats is
really in the problems that it tries to solve. Most of modern E'trics comes
directly from Stats, however, in some cases, E'trics has needed to analyze
situations not encountered previously in the 'general' stats
literature--things such as simultaneity (estimating supply-demand curves
with only one set of data) and GARCH models for time-series data. In other
cases, E'trics has taken prior art, applied it to a completely new set of
problems requiring new or additional underlying (stats) theory to be created
but claimed the technique for itself. (GMM comes to mind here...)
As you pointed out, there is little about measurement in econometrics. I
believe that the metrics part is a holdover from the early days when
econometricians gathered quantitative data & tried to juggle it as best they
could. More recently, paucity of data is less of an issue than availability
or suitability while computational costs have plummeted, allowing
researchers to investigate theory in ways undreamt only 30 years ago.
Anyway, if any of this is helpful, good. If not, ignore. If offensive,
please don't tell my advisor. :)
Have a good weekend all.
--
Matthew C Roberts
Graduate Student
Department of Economics
NC State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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