Scatter diagrams can be useful, but as they indicate only strictly bivariate correlations, they can also be very misleading for a lot of reasons. Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: Michael Perelman <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu> To: pen-l at galaxy.csuchico.edu <pen-l at galaxy.csuchico.edu> Cc: jdinardo at aris.ss.uci.edu <jdinardo at aris.ss.uci.edu>; lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Monday, May 10, 1999 12:03 PM Subject: on econometrics
>Can an econometric exercise ever produce anything more than a hint of an
>interesting idea? I suspect that a skillful econometrician can find a
>relationship
>between any two arbitrary data sets.
>
>As econometric techniques become more sophisticated, become more
>brittle.
>
>How is a sophisticated econometric model more convincing than a simple
>scatter diagram?
>
>--
>
>Michael Perelman
>Economics Department
>California State University
>michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
>Chico, CA 95929
>530-898-5321
>fax 530-898-5901
>
>
>