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Mult Hetero Notes Agd
Mult Hetero Notes Agd
Mult Hetero Notes Agd
Heteroskedasticity
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2. The Assumptions
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2.5 Homoskedasticity
This is an assumption regarding the
disturbance variance being constant :
Varu|x 1, x 2 , . . . , x k 2
and
Varu i |x 1i, x 2i , . . . , x ki 2
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3. Some Basic Concepts
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3.2 Statistical Properties of the OLS estimators
As we saw in our Statistics classes that
estimators are random variables, so and
are random variables.
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2
n i xi 2
Var ,
i x i x 2
Both Var and Var are functions of the error
variance 2 which is unknown.
To estimate Var and Var we need an
estimate of 2 . How do we get that ?
Estimation of Disturbance Variance 2
We use the LS residuals u i to proxy for the
unobserved errors, u i .
So the residual variance seems a natural
estimator for the distubance
variance,Varu 2 ,
i.e.,
Var u n u i
1 2
i
( u is also a r.v. since it is a function of the
r.vs. yand y.)
However, Var u is not an unbiased estimator
of 2 . We can show that :
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ui
2
E 2
i
ui
2
E n 2 2
i
ui 2
So we use n2
2 as an estimator of
2 in the 2-variable model. 2 is an unbiased
estimator of 2 , since
E 2 2
2
ui
i. e. , E 2
n2
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4. Multicollinearity
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(as we saw in case of the dummy variable
trap), so inverse of the X-matrix would not
exist and we would not be able to estimate
the unknown parameters and.
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High Var j leads to high standard errors and
low values of t-statistics (remember t-statistic
j
of j ).
se j
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xi, i j
But there is no exact measure or cutoff for
what is ‘too high’. In practice therefore, VIF
has limited relevance.
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Taking log of variables may also help in the
presence of multicollinearity.
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5. Heteroskedasticity
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5.3 What to do about Heteroskedasticity ?
Suppose we suspect
Eu 2i |x 1, x 2 , . . . , x k 2i fx 1, x 2 , . . . , x k but we
do not know what is the exact funtional form
of ffx 1, x 2 , . . . , x k .
In this case we can use
heteroskedasticity- robust standard errors .
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i x i x 2 2 2
Var
i x i x
2 2
i x i x 2
Under heteroskedasticity :
i x i x 2 2i
Var
i x i x 2 2
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(ii) Robust standard errors can always be
used with cross-section data and is valid
even under homoskedasticity, when the data
set is large.
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random variable y and a constant m:
Varmy m 2 Vary
ifVary 2 ,
Varmy m 2 2
Also remember, for a set of independent
variables, (e.g., the error terms are assumed
to be independent), the variance of the sum is
equal to the sum of variances :
Varu i 2 , i
Then
Var u i n 2
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y i x i u i 1
where, Varu i |x i 2 fx 2 x i
In this case we use WLS and transform our
model as follows, where each term is
weighted by 1x i :
yi
1 x i u i 2
xi xi xi xi
y
or, i x i u i 2
xi xi xi
What is the variance of the error term in
Model (2) ?
Var u i x1i Varu i x1i 2 x i 2
xi
i. e. Var u i 2
xi
Using WLS we have homoskedastic errors,
i.e., the error variance is constant in Model
(2) !
So when the exact form of heteroskeasiticy is
known we use Generalized Least Squares
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(GLS) based on the following general
principle. Suppose :
Varu|x 2 fx
We transform the model by using WLS using
the weights 1 as follows :
fx
y x u 3
fx fx fx fx
So that :
Var u 1 Varu 1 2 fx
fx fx fx
or, Var u 2
fx
Look at the estimated coefficients in the WLS
Models (2) and (3). Their interpretation is
exactly the same as in Model 1.
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Weighted Least Squares (WLS) - Example 2
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ui
Varu Var n 12 Var u i
n
12 n 2
n
1n 2
The errors are heteroskedastic in the
averages-Model and the form of
heteroskedasticity is known.
So we use WLS as discussed above.
Here fx 1n so the weights used will be
1
n
fx