Friday, February 19, 2010

Facebook econometricians

In one of my ECONMET computer workshops this week I discovered that some students were looking at Facebook rather than working on their econometrics practical exercises. I told them that they could glance at Facebook every now and then but only AFTER they had obtained their regression results, and for no more than 5% of the class time.

This morning I saw that one of them had started to use some econometrics words on his Facebook wall (but, he said, it would be no more than 5% of them !!). This "inspired" the following reply (say it like a rap!).

"Don't be bombastic
It's way too drastic
To write stochastic...
Or heteroskedastic
Iconoclastic
It's way too classic
For Facebook traffic
Just stick to plastic
Or strong elastic
Don't try to boot-lick
Or be hedonic
Trust me to nitpick
It's just the metric"

1 Comments:

Blogger Macrocompassion said...

Econometrics is a dispised subject. It is like the famous gofus bird which flys by looking backwards, and consequently is always colliding with the unforseen.

The forcasting of the behavour of our economics systems when taken for more than one variable should not be included in econometrics, but inevitably it is (although econometrics is always introduced specifically for use in single-variable situations). Macroeconomics theory can do a lot better than become statistically based, and there are some technical means (equations) that are applicable instead if those dreary statistical reckonings.

2:54 AM  

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