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Spurious Regressions

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The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
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Abstract

Simulations have shown that if two independent time series, each being highly autocorrelated, are put into a standard regression framework, then the usual measures of goodness of fit, such as t and R-squared statistics, will be badly biased and the series will appear to be ‘related’. This possibility of a ‘spurious relationship’ between variables in economics, particularly in macroeconomics and finance, restrains the form of model that can be used. An error-correction model will provide a solution in some cases.

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Granger, C.W.J. (2018). Spurious Regressions. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1373

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