Multiple Regression

Analysis:
Chapter 3
Estimation

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Definition of the multiple linear regression model

“Explains variable in terms of variables ”

Intercept Slope parameters

Dependent variable,
explained variable, Error term,
Independent variables, disturbance,
response variable,… explanatory variables, unobservables,…
regressors,…

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Motivation for multiple regression
• Incorporate more explanatory factors into the model
• Explicitly hold fixed other factors that otherwise would be in
• Allow for more flexible functional forms

● Example: Wage equation

Now measures effect of education explicitly holding experience fixed

All other factors…

Hourly wage Years of education Years of labor market experience

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Example: Average test scores and per student spending

Other factors

Average standardized Per student spending Average family income

test score of school at this school of students at this school

• Per student spending is likely to be correlated with average family

income at a given high school because of school financing
• Omitting average family income in regression would lead to biased
estimate of the effect of spending on average test scores
• In a simple regression model, effect of per student spending would
partly include the effect of family income on test scores

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Example: Family income and family consumption

Other factors

Family consumption Family income Family income squared

• Model has two explanatory variables: inome and income squared

• Consumption is explained as a quadratic function of income
• One has to be very careful when interpreting the coefficients:

By how much does consumption Depends on how

increase if income is increased much income is
by one unit? already there

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Example: CEO salary, sales, and CEO tenure

Log of CEO salary Log sales Quadratic function of CEO tenure with the firm

• Model assumes a constant elasticity relationship between CEO salary

and the sales of his or her firm
• Model assumes a quadratic relationship between CEO salary and his
or her tenure with the firm

● Meaning of “linear” regression

• The model has to be linear in the parameters (not in the variables)

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● OLS Estimation of the multiple regression model

● Random sample

● Regression residuals

● Minimize sum of squared residuals

Minimization will be carried out by computer

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Interpretation of the multiple regression model

By how much does the dependent variable change if the j-th

independent variable is increased by one unit, holding all
other independent variables and the error term constant

• The multiple linear regression model manages to hold the values

of other explanatory variables fixed even if, in reality, they are
correlated with the explanatory variable under consideration
• “Ceteris paribus”-interpretation
• It has still to be assumed that unobserved factors do not change if
the explanatory variables are changed

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Example: Determinants of college GPA

Grade point average at college High school grade point average Achievement test score

● Interpretation
• Holding ACT fixed, another point on high school grade point average
is associated with another .453 points college grade point average
• Or: If we compare two students with the same ACT, but the hsGPA
of student A is one point higher, we predict student A to have a
colGPA that is .453 higher than that of student B
• Holding high school grade point average fixed, another 10 points on
ACT are associated with less than one point on college GPA
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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Properties of OLS on any sample of data

● Fitted values and residuals

Fitted or predicted values Residuals

● Algebraic properties of OLS regression

Deviations from regression Covariance between deviations Sample averages of y and of

line sum up to zero and regressors are zero the regressors lie on regression
line
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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● “Partialling out” interpretation of multiple regression

● One can show that the estimated coefficient of an explanatory

variable in a multiple regression can be obtained in two steps:
• 1) Regress the explanatory variable on all other explanatory
variables
• 2) Regress on the residuals from this regression

● Why does this procedure work?

• The residuals from the first regression is the part of the explanatory
variable that is uncorrelated with the other explanatory variables
• The slope coefficient of the second regression therefore represents
the isolated effect of the explanatory variable on the dep. variable

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Goodness-of-Fit

● Decomposition of total variation

Notice that R-squared can only

increase if another explanatory
variable is added to the regression
● R-squared

● Alternative expression for R-squared

R-squared is equal to the squared
correlation coefficient between the
actual and the predicted value of
the dependent variable

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Example: Explaining arrest records
Number of times Proportion prior arrests Months in prison 1986 Quarters employed 1986
arrested 1986 that led to conviction

● Interpretation:
• If the proportion prior arrests increases by 0.5, the predicted fall in
arrests is 7.5 arrests per 100 men
• If the months in prison increase from 0 to 12, the predicted fall in
arrests is 0.408 arrests for a particular man
• If the quarters employed increase by 1, the predicted fall in arrests
is 10.4 arrests per 100 men
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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Example: Explaining arrest records (cont.)
• An additional explanatory variable is added:

Average sentence in prior convictions

R-squared increases only slightly

● Interpretation:
• Average prior sentence increases number of arrests (?)
• Limited additional explanatory power as R-squared increases by little

● General remark on R-squared

• Even if R-squared is small (as in the given example), regression may
still provide good estimates of ceteris paribus effects

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Standard assumptions for the multiple regression model

● Assumption MLR.1 (Linear in parameters)

In the population, the relation-
ship between y and the expla-
natory variables is linear

● Assumption MLR.2 (Random sampling)

The data is a random sample

drawn from the population

Each data point therefore follows the population equation

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Standard assumptions for the multiple regression model
(cont.)

● Assumption MLR.3 (No perfect collinearity)

“In the sample (and therefore in the population), none
of the independent variables is constant and there are
no exact linear relationships among the independent variables.”

● Remarks on MLR.3
• The assumption only rules out perfect collinearity/correlation bet-
ween explanatory variables; imperfect correlation is allowed
• If an explanatory variable is a perfect linear combination of other
explanatory variables it is superfluous and may be eliminated
• Constant variables are also ruled out (collinear with intercept)
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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Example for perfect collinearity: small sample

In a small sample, avginc may accidentally be an exact multiple of expend; it will not
be possible to disentangle their separate effects because there is exact covariation

● Example for perfect collinearity: relationships between

regressors

Either shareA or shareB will have to be dropped from the regression because there
is an exact linear relationship between them: shareA + shareB = 1

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Standard assumptions for the multiple regression model
(cont.)

● Assumption MLR.4 (Zero conditional mean)

The value of the explanatory variables
must contain no information about the
mean of the unobserved factors

• In a multiple regression model, the zero conditional mean

assumption is much more likely to hold because fewer things end up
in the error

● Example: Average test scores

If avginc was not included in the regression, it would end up in the error term;
it would then be hard to defend that expend is uncorrelated with the error
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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Discussion of the zero mean conditional assumption
• Explanatory variables that are correlated with the error term are
called endogenous; endogeneity is a violation of assumption MLR.4
• Explanatory variables that are uncorrelated with the error term are
called exogenous; MLR.4 holds if all explanat. var. are exogenous
• Exogeneity is the key assumption for a causal interpretation of the
regression, and for unbiasedness of the OLS estimators

● Theorem 3.1 (Unbiasedness of OLS)

• Unbiasedness is an average property in repeated samples; in a

given sample, the estimates may still be far away from the true
values
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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Including irrelevant variables in a regression model

No problem because . = 0 in the population

However, including irrevelant variables may increase sampling variance.

● Omitting relevant variables: the simple case

True model (contains x1 and x2)

Estimated model (x2 is omitted)

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Omitted variable bias
If x1 and x2 are correlated, assume a linear
regression relationship between them

If y is only regressed If y is only regressed error term

on x1 this will be the on x1, this will be the
estimated intercept estimated slope on x1

● Conclusion: All estimated coefficients will be biased

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Example: Omitting ability in a wage equation

Will both be positive

The return to education will be overestimated because . It will look

as if people with many years of education earn very high wages, but this is partly
due to the fact that people with more education are also more able on average.

● When is there no omitted variable bias?

• If the omitted variable is irrelevant or uncorrelated
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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Omitted variable bias: more general cases

True model (contains x1, x2, and x3)

Estimated model (x3 is omitted)

• No general statements possible about direction of bias

• Analysis as in simple case if one regressor uncorrelated with others

● Example: Omitting ability in a wage equation

If exper is approximately uncorrelated with educ and abil, then the direction
of the omitted variable bias can be as analyzed in the simple two variable case.

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Standard assumptions for the multiple regression model
(cont.)

● Assumption MLR.5 (Homoskedasticity)

The value of the explanatory variables
must contain no information about the
variance of the unobserved factors
● Example: Wage equation
This assumption may also be hard
to justify in many cases

All explanatory variables are

● Short hand notation collected in a random vector

with
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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Theorem 3.2 (Sampling variances of the OLS slope estimators)
Under assumptions MLR.1 – MLR.5:

Variance of the error term

Total sample variation in R-squared from a regression of explanatory variable

explanatory variable xj: xj on all other independent variables
(including a constant)

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Components of OLS Variances:

● 1) The error variance

• A high error variance increases the sampling variance because there
is more “noise” in the equation
• A large error variance necessarily makes estimates imprecise
• The error variance does not decrease with sample size

● 2) The total sample variation in the explanatory variable

• More sample variation leads to more precise estimates
• Total sample variation automatically increases with the sample size
• Increasing the sample size is thus a way to get more precise
estimates
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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● 3) Linear relationships among the independent variables

Regress on all other independent variables (including a constant)

The R-squared of this regression will be the higher

the better xj can be linearly explained by the other
independent variables

• Sampling variance of will be the higher the better explanatory

variable can be linearly explained by other independent variables
• The problem of almost linearly dependent explanatory variables is
called multicollinearity (i.e. for some )

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● An example for multicollinearity

Average standardized Expenditures Expenditures for in- Other ex-

test score of school for teachers structional materials penditures

The different expenditure categories will be strongly correlated because if a school has a lot
of resources it will spend a lot on everything.

It will be hard to estimate the differential effects of different expenditure categories because
all expenditures are either high or low. For precise estimates of the differential effects, one
would need information about situations where expenditure categories change differentially.

As a consequence, sampling variance of the estimated effects will be large.

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Discussion of the multicollinearity problem
• In the above example, it would probably be better to lump all
expen-diture categories together because effects cannot be
disentangled
• In other cases, dropping some independent variables may reduce
multicollinearity (but this may lead to omitted variable bias)

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
• Only the sampling variance of the variables involved in
multicollinearity will be inflated; the estimates of other effects may
be very precise
• Note that multicollinearity is not a violation of MLR.3 in the strict
sense
• Multicollinearity may be detected through “variance inflation factors”

As an (arbitrary) rule of thumb, the variance

inflation factor should not be larger than 10

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Variances in misspecified models
• The choice of whether to include a particular variable in a regression
can be made by analyzing the tradeoff between bias and variance

True population model

Estimated model 1

Estimated model 2

• It might be the case that the likely omitted variable bias in the
misspecified model 2 is overcompensated by a smaller variance
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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Variances in misspecified models (cont.)

Conditional on x1 and x2, the

variance in model 2 is
always smaller than that in
model 1

● Case 1: Conclusion: Do not include irrelevant regressors

● Case 2: Trade off bias and variance; Caution: bias will not vanish even in large samples

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Estimating the error variance

An unbiased estimate of the error variance can be obtained by substracting the number of
estimated regression coefficients from the number of observations. The number of obser-
vations minus the number of estimated parameters is also called the degrees of freedom.
The n estimated squared residuals in the sum are not completely independent but related
through the k+1 equations that define the first order conditions of the minimization
problem.

● Theorem 3.3 (Unbiased estimator of the error variance)

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Estimation of the sampling variances of the OLS estimators
The true sampling
variation of the
estimated

Plug in for the unknown

The estimated samp-

ling variation of the
estimated

● Note that these formulas are only valid under assumptions

MLR.1-MLR.5 (in particular, there has to be homoskedasticity)
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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Efficiency of OLS: The Gauss-Markov Theorem
• Under assumptions MLR.1 - MLR.5, OLS is unbiased
• However, under these assumptions there may be many other
estimators that are unbiased
• Which one is the unbiased estimator with the smallest variance?
• In order to answer this question one usually limits oneself to linear
estimators, i.e. estimators linear in the dependent variable

May be an arbitrary function of the sample values

of all the explanatory variables; the OLS estimator
can be shown to be of this form

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 Multiple Regression
Analysis: Estimation
● Theorem 3.4 (Gauss-Markov Theorem)
• Under assumptions MLR.1 - MLR.5, the OLS estimators are the best
linear unbiased estimators (BLUEs) of the regression coefficients,
i.e.

for all for which .

● OLS is only the best estimator if MLR.1 – MLR.5 hold; if there

is heteroskedasticity for example, there are better estimators.

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