The Guide was developed over the course of five semesters at San Diego State University in California. Extensive student input was incorporated and the result is a no-nonsense, "just show me how to do it already," manual for success. Econometrics is a very powerful tool for data analysis. The problem is, most instructors are accomplished econometricians, but they can't communicate the basics. This Guide Does!

The Guide has continued to evolve based on the input of students who have purchased it online and put it to work for them over the last few years. The Econometrics Guide is available in electronic Adobe PDF format for only $9.95 (go to the Econometrics Help & How To Guide order page).

The Econometrics Guide is Organized as Follows:

Introduction

The Guide starts out explaining why the heck anyone uses Econometrics and what the heck it is (in terms normal people can understand). The explaination begins at the beginning and definitely doesn't assume that you've already got a Ph.D. This type of "big picture" explanation really helps a great many students right off the bat, since usually their instructor dives into the minutia way too fast.

The introductory pages give a clear, straightforward overview of modeling and explain the what? why? and how? enough so that as you go through your econometrics course you have an idea of where you're heading.

Understanding the Output Produced by the Computer

You'll most likely be learning to use a computer to do the econometric analysis. In this section of the Guide, each page shows a standarized regression table (see sample below - yours may look different but it should still have the same stuff) and breaks the table down into its component parts explaining each thoroughly. Each page explains a different part, so by the end of the section you will be completely at ease with the output and understand each and every row and column.

Throughout the section explaining the table above, there are concise explanations of how you use each part of the table to calculate such things as confidence intervals and T-tests. Equations for these calculations are shown step-by-step so they are easy to follow (the way you probably wish your instructor would do it, doh!).

Straight-Talk on the Tricky Stuff

The "meat" of econometric analysis comes next -- it's tricky, but important -- and the Guide helps you tackle this too:

Functional Forms: Log-Linear, Linear-Log (what? why? how? who cares? - each is discussed)

Serial Correlation: Not what you eat for breakfast, but a problem that often occurs with time series data (data over time, like 1960-1990)

Heteroskedasticity: (what the &%$#!) The Guide explains what it is and how to test for it

Hypothesis Testing (T-tests, F-test): This tells you if the variables you've chosen have meaning or not. This can be a headache, but really isn't once you have it explained in terms a normal human can understand

The Guide even comes with an index so you can find what you're looking for quickly.