Introduction

Abstract

Econometrics is a branch of the economics discipline that brings together economic theory, mathematics, statistics, and computer science to study economic phenomena. It is both a separate field of study within economics and a powerful tool that many, if not most, economists and other social scientists use to study particular applied problems. The primary purpose of econometrics is to give empirical content to economic theory. To accomplish this, econometrics must encompass a wide range of activities. These include:

• (i) precise mathematical formulation of an economic theory—mathematical economics;

• (ii) development and extension of statistical and computational techniques appropriate for econometric models and data—econometric theory;

• (iii) development of methods for collecting, and the actual collection of, economic data—economic statistics.