INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMETRICS II ECO 306 NOUN 42 random factor known as the
disturbance term. We shall start with
the simplest possible model ...[2.01]
, the value of the dependent variable in observation
i, has two components (1) the nonrandom (deterministic term) component, being described as the explanatory (or independent/descriptive) variable and the fixed quantities and as
the parameters of the equation, and (2) the disturbance (stochastic term, Figure 2.0 illustrates how these two components combine to determine
Y.
X1
,
X2
,
X3
, and
X4
, which are four hypothetical values of the explanatory variable. If the relationship between
Y and
X were exact,
the corresponding values of Y would be represented by the points
Q1
–
Q4
on the line. The disturbance term causes the actual values of
Y to be different.
In the diagram, the disturbance term has been assumed to be positive in the first and fourth observations and negative in the other two, with the result that, if one
plots the actual values of Y against the values of
X, one obtains the points
P1
–
P4
Figure Illustration of independent component combination to give a dependent variable In practice, the
P points are all not what can be seen in Figure 2.0. The actual values of and and hence the location of the
Q points,
are unknown, as these are the values of the disturbance term in the observations. The task of regression analysis is to