9.) Serial Correlation Flashcards
Pure Serial Correlation
occurs when Classical Assumption IV, which assume uncorrelated observations of the error term, is violated in a correctly specified equation.
If the expected value of the simple correlation coefficient between any two observations of the error term that are…
not equal to zero.
The most commonly assumed kind of serial correlation is ….
first-order serial correlation, in which the current value of the error term is a function of the previous value of the error term.
The first order autocorrelation coefficient (p) …
measures the functional relationship between the value of an observation of the error term and th evalue of the previous observation of the error term
The magnitude of p indicates…
the strength of the serial correlation in an equation.
A p approaches one in absolute value..
the value of the previous observation of the error term becomes more important in determining the curret value of the stochastic error term, and a high degree of serial correlation exists.
The sighn of p indicates…
the nature of the serial correlation in an equation.
A positive value for p implies…
that the error term tends to have the same sign from one time period to the next.
Positive Serial Correlation indicates…
that the error term tends to have the same sign from one time period to the next.
A negative value of p implies…
that the error term has a tendency to switch signs from negative to positive and back again in consecutive observations
Negative Serial Correlation signals…
that there is some sort of cycle (like a pendulum) behind the drawings of the stochastic disturbances.
By impure serial correlation the authors mean…
serial correlation is caused by a specification error such as an omitted variable or an incorrect functional form.
Pure Serial Correlation is caused by…
the underlying distribution of the error term of the true specification of an equation
Impure Serial Correlation is caused by…
a specification error that often can be corrected.
An omitted variable can cause…
the error term to be serially correlated
The proper remedy for serial correlation depends on …
whether the serial correlation is likely to be pure or impure
the new error term e* will tend to be serially correlated when…
- ) X2 itself is serially correlated (this is quite likely in a time series) and
- ) the size of e is small compared to the size of B2Xbarred2
An incorrect functional form is a common cause of…
the error term being serially correlated
Using a linear functional form when a nonlinear one is appropriate will…
usually result in positive impure serial correlation
What generally results in positive impure serial correlation?
Using a linear functional form when a nonlinear one is appropriate.
The existence of serial correlation in the error term of an equation violates Classical Assumption IV, and the estimation of the equation with OLS has at least three consequences…
- ) Pure serial correlation does not cause bias in the coefficient estimates.
- ) Serial correlation causes OLS to no longer be the minimum variance estimator (of all the linear unbiased estimators).
- ) Serial correlation causes the OLS estimates of the SE(Bestiamted) to be biased, leading to unreliable hypothesis testing.
When we have pure serial correlation…
hypothesis testing becomes both biased and unreliable
What sort of bias does serial correlation tend to cause?
Typically, the bias in the estimate of SE(Best) is negative, meaning that OLS underestimates the size of the standard error of the coefficients
What will happen to hypothesis testing if OLS understimates the SE(Best) and therefore overestimates the t-scores?
The “too low) SE(Best) will cause a “too-high” t-score for a particular coefficient