Econometrics: Alchemy or Science? Essays in Econometric Methodology

Since the first edition of this book was published in 1993, David Hendry's work on econometric methodology has become increasingly influential. In this edition he presents a brand new paper which compellingly explains the logic of his general approach to econometric modelling and describes recent major advances in computer-automated modelling, which establish the success of the proposed strategy. Empirical studies of consumers' expenditure and money demands illustrate the methods in...
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Since the first edition of this book was published in 1993, David Hendry's work on econometric methodology has become increasingly influential. In this edition he presents a brand new paper which compellingly explains the logic of his general approach to econometric modelling and describes recent major advances in computer-automated modelling, which establish the success of the proposed strategy. Empirical studies of consumers' expenditure and money demands illustrate the methods in action. The breakthrough presented here will make econometric testing much easier. -;"Econometrics: Alchemy or Science?" analyses the effectiveness and validity of applying econometric methods to economic time series. The methodological dispute is long-standing, and no claim can be made for a single valid method, but recent results on the theory and practice of model selection bid fair to resolve many of the contentious issues. The book presents criticisms and evaluations of competing approaches, based on theoretical economic and econometric analyses, empirical applications, and Monte Carlo simulations, which interact to determine best practice. It explains the evolution of an approach to econometric modelling founded in careful statistical analyses of the available data, using economic theory to guide the general model specification. From a strong foundation in the theory of reduction, via a range of applied and simulation studies, it demonstrates that general-to-specific procedures have excellent properties.