Lesson plan

Statistical model specification

In statistics, model specification is part of the process of building a statistical model: specification consists of selecting an appropriate functional form for the model and choosing which variables to include. For example, given personal income y together with years of schooling s and on-the-job experience x , we might specify a functional relationship y = f(s,x) as follows: : \ln y = \ln y_0 + \rho s + \beta_1 x + \beta_2 x^2 + \varepsilon where \varepsilon is the unexplained error term that is supposed to comprise independent and identically distributed Gaussian variables. The statistician Sir David Cox has said, "How [the] translation from subject-matter problem to statistical model is done is often the most critical part of an analysis".

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Article summary

In statistics, model specification is part of the process of building a statistical model: specification consists of selecting an appropriate functional form for the model and choosing which variables to include. For example, given personal income y together with years of schooling s and on-the-job experience x , we might specify a functional relationship y = f(s,x) as follows: : \ln y = \ln y_0 + \rho s + \beta_1 x + \beta_2 x^2 + \varepsilon where \varepsilon is the unexplained error term that is supposed to comprise independent and identically distributed Gaussian variables. The statistician Sir David Cox has said, "How [the] translation from subject-matter problem to statistical model is done is often the most critical part of an analysis".

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Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

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