| |
NEW In EViews 7 and 7.1 |
distribuito in Italia da TStat S.r.l. |
 EViews 7 features a wide range of exciting changes and
improvements. The following is an overview of the most important new
features in Version 7. Here is also a list of ne features in EViews 7.1.
You may also view this information in the EViews 7 What's New brochure.
Improved Performance
Computational Tune-Up
As part of a general effort to improve performance, a variety of key
computational routines and algorithms have been scrutinized and tuned
for optimal performance. The result is that most statistical
computations in EViews are now significantly faster. You should
definitely notice the difference in formerly long-running routines,
most notably in iterative or complicated procedures.
Multi-processor Support
EViews 7 has been retooled to take advantage of
multiple-processor cores. And you don't have to do a thing to enable
multi-core support. By default, EViews 7 will automatically sense
whether your computer sports more than one processor core and will
optimize its calculations accordingly (using all of the cores).
If you wish, you may override this setting for up to eight threads.
This allows you to increase the number of threads EViews uses to beyond
the physical number of cores. We have not found this to be effective,
but, in principle, it could improve performance with hyper-threading.
If you require more processing power for other applications, you may
wish to limit the number of threads EViews uses by setting this number
below the physical number of cores. This is guaranteed to work with
Intel processors, and, to our knowledge, should work with other brands
of processors as well.
To take advantage of the user-specified settings, go to the
Options/General Options dialog in the main EViews menu. The
Multi-processor/Multi-core use section may be used to define the
maximum number of threads you would like to allow EViews to use when
processing statistical calculations. EViews treats processors and cores
symmetrically, and does not include hyper-threaded processors. In
general, we recommend leaving this setting at Auto. You may click on
the Reset to EViews Defaults button to return to the default settings.
Updated Interface
EViews has always been known for its unmatched ease-of-use, but there's
always room for improvement. We've raised the ante in EViews 7 with a
number of interface improvements. Here are but a few of the highlights:
Customizable Appearance
Choice is good. And EViews 7 now offers you choice in the appearance of
your EViews window so that you may customize the appearance of your
EViews environment to use different colors for windows, backgrounds,
toolbars, and status bars.
  
  
Central to the new appearance options
are "themes" providing various "looks" for your EViews window. To
access the themes and other appearance settings, go to the main EViews
window and select Options/General Options to display the dialog. Select
a theme, specify modifications if desired, and off you go.
Changing your theme won't make EViews 7 run any faster, but a fresh new look might make the work seem to go a bit faster.
Enhanced Drag-and-Drop Support
Drag-and-drop support has been enhanced throughout EViews 7. You may
now copy objects between workfiles and pages using drag-and-drop. You
can even use drag-and-drop to copy entire workfile pages and to
retrieve objects from an EViews database.
For example, you may:
 Create
a new workfile page and copy the contents of an existing workfile page
or foreign source file by dragging the source file or tab and dropping
it over the New Page tab in a workfile. A plus ("+") sign will appear
when your cursor is over an appropriate area. Drag to create new page
Alternately, drag the workfile page tab into the open area in the
EViews window; a new workfile will be created, and the contents of the
source page will be copied into the first page of the new workfile.
- Use drag-and-drop to reorder your workfile pages. You
may change the order of your workfile pages by dragging the tab for a
page at the bottom of the workfile window, and dropping it on top of
the tab for the page it should follow. Note the difference in behavior
between dragging a tab within a workfile and dragging across workfiles.
The first reorders the pages, while the second copies the contents of
one page into another.
- Combine the contents of two pages by dragging the
source page tab onto the destination page window. Depending on the
objects being copied and the frequencies of the workfiles, you may
receive a series of prompts to assist in completing the paste properly.
- Copy a set of EViews objects from within a page by
selecting them and drag them where you'd like them to go. The
destination object, whether it be a workfile, group, program, model, or
the command window, will attempt to accept the paste of the objects. A
plus ("+") sign will appear when your cursor is over an appropriate
area. Depending on the objects being copied, you may receive a series
of prompts to complete the paste.
- There are a variety of ways in which EViews objects
may be dropped onto other objects. You may add a seriesto a group
either by dragging the series icon onto the Spreadsheet view of the
group or by dragging it onto the Group Members view of the group. To
add an equation to a model, drag the equation icon from the workfile
into the equation view of the model.
You can experiment with drag-and-drop to discover the many places it is
now
available in EViews 7. As you drag and hold your mouse over a target
object, you
should see a plus ("+") sign when a drop operation is possible, and a
circle with a
line through it when dropping is not allowed.
Improved Command Interface
Command Editing
EViews 7 adds new features to make editing in the command window even
easier. To display a list of previous commands in the order in which
they were entered, press the Control key and the UP arrow (CTRL+UP).
The last command will be entered into the command window. Holding down
the CTRL key and pressing UP repeatedly will display the next prior
commands. Repeat until the desired command is recalled.
To examine a history of the last 30 commands, press the Control Key and
the J key (CTRL+J). In the popup window you may use the UP and DOWN
arrows to select the desired command and then press the ENTER key to
add it to the command window, or simply double click on the command. To
close the history window without selecting a command, click elsewhere
in the command window or press the Escape (ESC) key.
Command Window Undocking
Feeling a bit constrained in the traditional command window? You may
now drag the command window to anywhere inside the EViews frame. Press
F4 to toggle docking, or click on the command window, depress the
right-mouse button and select Toggle Command Docking. When undocked,
the command window toolbar contains buttons for displaying commands in
the list, and for redocking.
Updated Graph Options Dialog
EViews has always offered a large number of options
for customizing your graph output, and EViews 7 offers even more. To
better organize all of these options, we have completely redesigned the
EViews global and object graph options dialogs so that they use an
easy-to-use tree structure. You will find that most of the options are
functionally the same, but they have been broken into smaller
categories. Instead of tabs along the top of a dialog, we utilize a
descriptive tree structure that runs along the left side of the dialog.
Simply click on a tree node to display the relevant options in
manageable form.
As always, if you double-click on an applicable graph-element (the
legend, axes, etc.), EViews will open to the corresponding dialog tree
entry.
Updated Global Options Dialog
The various global options dialogs have been consolidated into a single General Options dialog, featuring an easy-to-use tree structure so you may navigate quickly between sets of settings.
In addition to reorganizing the existing material, there are important new settings in this dialog:
- Under the first group, Windows Appearance, you will find a dialog that you may use to set various EViews color palettes using themes.
- Advanced system options offers control over multi-processor/core use.
- Runtime settings, under the Programs
group, offers global settings for the new program log message settings
that allow you to control which messages are output to the log window.
EViews Auto-Update from the Web
EViews 7 offers an automatic updating feature that
can check for new updates every day, and install any updates that may
be available. The automatic update feature can be disabled from the Options/EViews Auto-Update from Web item in your main EViews menu. You can also manually check for updates from within EViews at any time by selecting Check now... under the EViews Auto-Update from Web menu item, or by selecting EViews Update from the Help menu.
EViews Add-Ins
EViews Add-ins offer you a exciting new way of
running EViews programs. You may readily define Add-ins that augment
the EViews language with user-defined commands, specify new menu
entries for point-and-click program interaction, and display program
output in standard EViews object windows.
New Data Handling Features
EViews 7 offers a number of features for data handling. Among the highlights:
New Workfile Frequencies
 EViews
7 offers built-in support for high-frequency (intraday) data, allowing
for hours, minutes, and seconds frequencies. In addition, there are a
number of new workfile frequencies, including Multi-year, Bimonthly,
Fortnight, Ten-Day, and Daily with an arbitrary range of days of the
week. Hourly frequencies
Easy-to-use dialogs let you describe regular frequency intraday data.
Simply provide information about the frequency of observations within
the day, the days of the week for which you observe data, and the time,
and the time range of observations within a day. More complicated
irregular frequency data structures may be created by specifying a data
series containing the date/time information for each observation.
In addition, newly introduced special workfile functions (@HOUR,
@MINUTE, @SECOND, and @HOURF) have been added to provide intraday
information for each observation in the workfile.Strings Strings
and string processing assume a newly prominent role in EViews 7.
Central to this importance are the introduction of the concept of
string lists, an expanded library of string functions that includes
routines for string list processing, new objects for holding strings
(string and svector), and enhanced programming support for working with
strings.
The enhanced role for strings opens the door to a wide range of
operations and greatly enhances the existing EViews programming
language.Direct Support for the FRED Database FRED®
(Federal Reserve Economic Data) is a publicly accessible database of
more than 20,000 U.S. time series of multiple frequencies, provided by
the Economic Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St.
Louis. The FRED database offers a wide variety of freely downloadable
data, including interest rates, exchange rates, national income
accounts, and many others. Data found in FRED are drawn from several
national and international sources and are updated frequently. Did we
mention that FRED data are free?
Prior to EViews 7, importing data from FRED required that the data
first be downloaded into either a Microsoft Excel or text file, and
then be imported into an EViews workfile. EViews users can now use
EViews to directly connect to, open, query, and import data from the
FRED database using the familiar EViews database interface.
For more information on the FRED databases, please see http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2.
Support for Reading Excel XLSX Files
The Excel 2007 default XLSX format is based on open XML standards.
Excel 2007 files are incompatible with older versions of Excel and
could not be read by EViews 6.
EViews 7 offers read (but not write) support for XLSX files.
Improved Foreign Data Import
EViews 7 offers a new command for importing data from a foreign file
(or previously saved workfile) into an existing workfile. You can, for
example, use the new import command to merge data from an Excel file
into your workfile, or to append data from a SPSS file into an existing
workfile.
New Graph Features
EEViews 7 graphs take a big step
forward with the ability to update when underlying data change and the
ability to interactively identify observation information. And that's
just the start. Auto-Updating Graphs
 The most important graphics improvement in EViews 7 is the addition of auto-updating graphs.Update Graph Settings
Previously, when you created a graph object by freezing an object view,
the data in the graph was fixed to the values at the time of creation.
You could use EViews tools for customization, many of which were
available only for graph objects, to change the look of the graph, but
the underlying data could not be changed. Moreover, if the data
subsequently changed, you would have to create a new graph by freezing
an updated object view and then reapply any customization.
Frozen graph objects may now be linked to the series or group from
which they were created. You may determine if and when a frozen graph
should update as the sample or its underlying data change. Thus, you
may treat a frozen graph as a snapshot of the data at the time it was
frozen, as in previous versions of EViews, or allow it to update as
data change.
Observation Info Display
EViews 7 allows you to closely examine points on a graph by hovering
the cursor over the data point you wish to identify. If the point is
inside the data portion of the graph, EViews will popup a box showing
the observation label and value.
Alternately, if you hover over any point inside the graph frame, EViews
will display the location of that point in the statusline located in
the lower left-hand corner of your EViews window.
Updated Graph Options Dialog
EViews has always offered a large number of options
for customizing your graph output, and EViews 7 offers even more. To
better organize all of these options, we have completely redesigned the
EViews global and object graph options dialogs so that they use an
easy-to-use tree structure. You will find that most of the options are
functionally the same, but they have been broken into smaller
categories. Instead of tabs along the top of a dialog, we utilize a
descriptive tree structure that runs along the left side of the dialog.
Simply click on a tree node to display the relevant options in
manageable form.
As always, if you double-click on an applicable graph-element (the
legend, axes, etc.), EViews will open to the corresponding dialog tree
entry.
Date Label Formatting
EViews 7 offers improved control over the formatting
of your date labels. In particular, the EViews automatic date
formatting setting now allows you to specify a set of guidelines for
displaying dates that will be used by EViews when automatically forming
labels.
Custom Observation Labels
You may now specify custom observation labels using
the text or values of an alpha or numeric series. The labels in the
graph are updated as the values of the alpha or series change.
Date Label Positioning
EViews 7 provides improved control over
the positioning of your date labels. You may specify whether the labels
are centered over period intervals, or whether they are placed at the
beginning of the interval. You may change the automatic label and tick
placement to label the start or center of the period.
Depending on the frequency of your graph, date labeling can be made
clearer if we include a second row of labels. You may instruct EViews
to utilize a second row of labels where appropriate. For example, daily
data can be labeled first by month, with a second row of labels
indicating the year; quarterly data can be labeled both by quarter and
by year.
Grid Lines
You may now control the placement of grid lines on the date axis (observation scale) of a graph. Grid lines options
In addition to the previously supported
"No grid lines" and "Automatic grid placement", EViews 7 now offers
custom grid steps so that you may, for example, choose to override the
automatic settings to place grid lines only on year boundaries.
Programming Improvements
A primary goal of EViews 7 was to improve the support for developing
EViews programs. With improvements ranging from the large (functions to
create user-defined dialogs and string list processing) to the small
(single-keystroke commenting of a block of program lines) EViews 7
ofers tools designed to make your life as a programmer that much
easier.
User-Defined Dialogs
Have you ever wanted to interact with a running
EViews .prg programs, say to provide additional input or retrieve
information? Well, EViews 7 offers the abiilty to construct several
types of user-interface controls, or dialogs, within your program.
These dialogs permit users to input variables or set options during the
running of the program, and allow you to to pass information back to
users.
There are five new functions for creating dialogs in EViews:
- @uiprompt - creates a prompt control, which displays a message to the user.
- @uiedit - creates an edit control, which lets users input text.
- @uilist - creates a list control, which lets users select from a list of choices.
- @uiradio - creates a set of radio controls, which lets users select from a set of choices.
- @uidialog - creates a dialog which contains a mixture of other controls.
Each dialog function returns an integer indicating how the user exited the dialog.
Strings
The programming language tools for working with strings have been
greatly enhanced EViews 7. In addition to an expanded library of string
functions, EViews 7 introduces list processing and provides new string
and string vector objects to hold string results from the workfile
structure.
Program language syntax has also been extended to support the increased
prominence of strings. You should find it much easier to produce
programs that manipulate and use strings. Notably, you may now use
string replacement variables recursively, so that a string replacement
variable may itself be obtained from a replacement variable (e.g.,
"{{%x}}" refers to the variable referred to by the contents of the
string "%x").
EViews 6 allowed you to use control ("!") variables and string ("%")
variables in defining FOR loops. You could not, however, use a scalar
objects in a loop definition. EViews 7 extends the syntax for loops to
allow use of both scalar and string objects. More generally, all
variables byles (control, scalar, string literal, string object) may
now be used in virtually all programming contexts..
Object Data Members
Recall that every object type in EViews has a
selection of data members. These members contain information about the
object and can be retrieved from an object to be used as part of
another command, or stored into the workfile as a new object. Data
members can be accessed by typing the object name followed by a period
and then the data member name. Note that all data members' names start
with an "@" symbol.
To improve your ability to write general use programs, EViews 7 offers
an expanded set of object data members that provide access to
information about the object.
For example, the following new data members belong to every object type in EViews:
Data Member
|
Description
|
@description
|
Returns a description of the object (if available)
|
@displayname
|
Returns the display name of the object. If the object has no display name, the name is returned
|
@name
|
Returns the name of the object
|
@remarks
|
Returns the remarks field of the object (if available)
|
@source
|
Returns the source field of the object (if available)
|
@type
|
Returns a string containing the object type
|
@units
|
Returns a string describing units of the object (if available)
|
@updatetime
|
Returns the string representation of the time the object was last updated
|
More generally, each object type has a set of new data members specific
to that type. Most notably, equation and other estimation objects now
allow you to obtain text information about the specification and sample
used in estimation.
Program Logging
It is sometimes useful to keep track of what is
happening during execution of a program. EViews 7 new log windows allow
you to record the state of various objects in your workfile or follow
program progression.
 Log
windows are automatically created when a program is executed, if
logging has been turned on. One log window is created for each program.
If a program is executed more than once and a log window has already
been created, the log window will be cleared and all subsequent
messages will go to the existing log window. If you wish to preserve a
log, you may either save the log to a text file or freeze it, creating
a text file object.
There are several types of messages which can be logged: program lines,
status line messages, user log messages, and program errors. When
displayed in a log message, each type will appear in a different color,
making it easier to differentiate one type from another. Program lines
are reiterations of the line of code in the program currently being
executed and are displayed in black. Status line messages are the
messages displayed in the status line and appear in blue. User log
messages are custom messages created by the program via the See logmsg.
command and appear in green. Program errors are messages generated when
a logical or syntactical error has occurred and appear in red.
Comment Lines
EViews 7 provides new tools for easily commenting and uncommenting of blocks of lines in the EViews program file editor.
A block of lines may be commented or uncommented in the editor by highlighting the lines, right-mouse clicking, and selecting Comment Selection or Uncomment Selection. Alternately, you may also use CTRL-K to comment and CTRL-U to uncomment lines.
Text Objects
Text objects have additional data members that should make them more
useful for holding blocks of text information that do not naturally fit
in an alpha series, string, or string vector. In addition, you may now
more easily move text into and out of a text object.
General Information Functions
One development focus in EViews 7 has been to offer
more functions for obtaining information of use to users writing EViews
programs. Along with a host of new object data member functions, EViews
features new functions for looking up objects in the workfile or files
in a directory, for obtaining information about the current workfile
(number of pages, names of pages, structure of pages, sample), and for
retrieving information about the EViews environment (version number,
produce name).
EViews 7 Exernal Interface Features
EViews 7 continues our ongoing effort to
better integrate with other applications. Newly added COM Automation
support, a new OLEDB driver, and an Excel-Add in make this the most
connected EViews ever.
The Excel Add-in
The EViews Excel Add-in offers a simple interface for fetching and
linking from within Microsoft Excel (2000 and later) to series and
matrix objects stored in EViews workfiles and databases.
Installation of the EViews Excel Add-in is an option during the normal
EViews installation procedure. Once installed and activated from within
Microsoft Excel, you may use the Add-in to retrieve data from EViews
databases and workfiles without leaving Excel.
You may choose to retrieve the EViews data via a simple import, or
using an import and link in which Excel will automatically refresh the
data when the EViews workfile or database changes. For more information
see the Using The EViews Excel Add-In whitepaper.
The EViews OLEDB Driver
External applications may now use OLEDB to read data
stored in EViews workfiles (WF1) and EViews databases (EDB). The EViews
OLEDB driver provides an easy-to-use interface for programs to read
EViews data.
The EViews OLEDB driver is automatically installed and registered on
your computer when you install EViews 7. Once installed, you may use
OLEDB-aware clients or custom programs to read series, vector, and
matrix objects directly from EViews workfiles and databases. For more
information see the Using EViews OLEDB Driver whitepaper.
EViews COM Automation Server
EViews offers COM Automation server support so that external programs
or scripts can launch or control EViews, transfer data, and execute
EViews commands.
EViews may be used as a COM Automation server so that an external
program or script may launch and control EViews programmatically.
EViews COM is comprised of two class objects: Manager and Application.
The Manager class is used to manage and create instances of the main
EViews Application class. The Application class provides access to
EViews functionality and data. Most notably, the Application class Run
and a variety of Get and Put methods provide you with access to EViews
commands and allow you to obtain read or write access to series,
vectors, matrix, and scalar objects.
Note that web server access to EViews via COM is not allowed.
Furthermore, EViews will limit COM access to a single instance when run
by other Windows services or run remotely via Distributed COM.
For more information see the EViews COM Automation whitepaper.
EViews COM Automation Client Support (MATLAB and R)
EViews offers COM Automation client support
application for MATLAB and R servers so that EViews may be used to
launch or control the application, transfer data, or execute commands.
The client support includes a set of EViews functions for exporting an
EViews data object into the external application, running commands and
programs in the application, and importing data back into EViews. These
functions provide easy access to the powerful programming languages of
MATLAB and R to create programs and routines that perform tasks not
currently implemented in EViews. The interface also offers access to
the large library of statistical routines already written in the MATLAB
and R languages.
There are six EViews commands that control the use of external applications: xclose, xget, xlog, xopen, xput, and xrun.
xopen and xclose are used to open and close a connection to the
external application (MATLAB or R). xput and xget are used to send data
to and from the external application. xrun is used to send a command to
the external application, and, finally, xlog lets you show or hide an
external application log window within EViews.
EViews 7 New Econometrics and Statistics: Computation
EViews 7 features a number of additions and improvements to its toolbox
of basic statistical procedures. Among the highlights are new tools for
interpolation, whitening regression, long-run covariance calculation,
variance ratio testing, and single-equation cointegration testing.
Interpolation
EViews 7 now offers built-in interpolation series to
fill in missing values within a series. EViews offers a number of
different algorithms for performing the interpolation: Linear,
Log-Linear, the Catmull-Rom Spline, and the Cardinal Spline.
Whitening
EViews now offers easy-to-use tools for
whitening a series or group of series using AR or VAR regressions,
respectively. Whitening can be performed with or without a constant and
row weights, using a fixed or info-criterion based lag selection. The
coefficients of the whitening regression may be saved.
Long-run Covariances
You may now compute estimates of the long-run
variance of a series or the long-run covariance matrix of a group of
series. You will find this feature in the View menu of a series or a
group object.
EViews provides powerful, easy-to-use tools for computing, displaying,
and saving the long-run covariance (variance) matrix of a single series
or all of the series in a group object. You may compute symmetric or
one-sided long-run covariances using nonparametric kernel (Newey-West
1987, Andrews 1991), parametric VARHAC (Den Haan and Levin 1997), and
prewhitened kernel (Andrews and Monahan 1992) methods. In addition,
EViews supports Andrews (1991) and Newey-West (1994) automatic
bandwidth selection methods for kernel estimators, and information
criteria based lag length selection methods for VARHAC and prewhitening
estimation.
By default, EViews will estimate the symmetric long-run covariance
matrix using a non-parametric kernel estimator with a Bartlett kernel
and a real-valued bandwidth determined solely using the number of
observations. The data will be centered (by subtracting off means)
prior to computing the kernel covariance estimator, but no other
pre-whitening will be performed. The results will only be displayed in
the series or group window. You may use the dialog to change these
settings.
Variance Ratio Testing
EViews 7 now has built-in variance ratio testing.
The variance ratio test view allows you to perform the Lo and MacKinlay
variance ratio test to determine whether differences in a series are
uncorrelated, or follow a random walk or martingale property.
EViews provides a range of testing options. You may perform the Lo and
MacKinlay variance ratio test for homoskedastic and heteroskedastic
random walks, using the asymptotic normal distribution (Lo and
MacKinlay, 1988) or wild bootstrap (Kim, 2006) to evaluate statistical
significance. In addition, you may compute the rank, rank-score, or
sign-based forms of the test (Wright, 2000), with bootstrap evaluation
of significance. In addition, EViews offers Wald and multiple
comparison variance ratio tests (Richardson and Smith, 1991; Chow and
Denning, 1993), so you may perform joint tests of the variance ratio
restriction for several intervals.
Cointegration Tests
To supplement the existing Johansen cointegration
tests, EViews 7 offers support for Engle and Granger (1987) and
Phillips and Ouliaris (1990) residual-based tests, Hansen’s (1992b)
instability test, and Park’s (1992) added variables test.
The residual based tests may be computed as a View of a Group object,
or as a diagnostic view for an equation estimated using one of the
cointegrating regression techniques.
EViews 7 New Econometrics and Statistics: Estimation
EViews 7 new estimation features include improved IV and GMM
estimation, sophisticated tools for performing cointegrating
regression, and estimation of Generalized Linear Models.
Instrumental Variables and GMM Estimation
The algorithms for Instrumental Variables/Two-stage
Least Squares estimation of models specified by expression with AR
terms have been improved significantly. Limited Information Maximum
Likelihood (LIML) and K-class estimation is now available as a single
equation estimation method. New options allow you to choose from an
expanded set of robust standard error calculations and to not include
the constant as an instrument in TSLS.
Single equation GMM has been completely overhauled. There is an
expanded set of options for the HAC weighting matrix (nonparametric
kernel (Newey-West 1987, Andrews 1991), parametric VARHAC (Den Haan and
Levin 1997), and prewhitened kernel (Andrews and Monahan 1992) methods,
Andrews (1991) and Newey-West (1994) automatic bandwidth selection
methods for kernel estimators, and information criteria based lag
length selection methods for VARHAC and prewhitening estimation), the
ability to not include a constant as an instrument, the ability to
estimate via continuously updating estimation (CUE), and a host of new
standard error options, including Windmeijer standard errors. You may
now specify prior observation weights.
GMM also offers the ability to save the weighting matrix from
estimation and standard error computation, or to use a user-supplied
weighting matrix as part of estimation. These features allow the user
to estimate a GMM model using the weighting matrix from a previously
estimated GMM model.
All three types of IV estimation offer new diagnostics and tests,
including a Instrument Orthogonality Test, a Regressor Endogeneity
Test, a Weak Instrument Test, and a GMM specific breakpoint test.
Cointegrating Regression
In addition to the previously supported Johansen
system methodology, EViews 7 offers a full set of tools for estimating
and testing single equation cointegrating relationships. Three fully
efficient estimation methods, Fully Modified OLS (Phillips and Hansen
1992), Canonical Cointegrating Regression (Park 1992), and Dynamic OLS
(Saikkonen 1992, Stock and Watson 1993) are described, along with
various cointegration testing procedures: Engle and Granger (1987) and
Phillips and Ouliaris (1990) residual-based tests, Hansen's (1992b)
instability test, and Park's (1992) added variables test.
Generalized Linear Models
EViews 7 supports estimation of Generalized Linear
Models (Nelder and McCullagh, 1983). This class of models generalizes
classical linear regression to include a broad range of specifications
that have proven to be useful in practice. Among these models are
log-linear regression, standard probit and logit, probit and logit
specified by proportions, and regression with count or survival data.
A wide range of family, link, dispersion estimation, and estimation
options are offered, allowing for computation of various robust
standard error and QMLE specifications.
Notably, EViews estimates both prior variance and frequency weighted specifications.
Weighted Least Squares
The specification of weights in Weighted Least
Squares has been generalized so that you may now provide your weights
in inverse variance, standard deviation, or variance form. Previously
weights were only specified in inverse standard deviation form.
Additionally, you may now control whether or not to scale the weight
series prior to use. Together, these options should make it easier to
match intermediate calculations and results of other sources.
EViews 7 New Econometrics and Statistics: Diagnostics
EViews 7 features a number of additions and improvements its extensive
set of basic diagnostics. Notably additions include greatly expanded
options for single equation robust covariances, a variety of new
single-equation post-estimation diagnostics, and specialized
diagnostics for equations estimated using instrumental variables and
GMM.
Coefficient Covariance Calculation
EViews 7 offers an expanded choice of options for computing standard errors for single equation regression estimates.
There is now an option to turn off the degrees-of-freedom adjustment to standard errors.
More importantly, an expanded range of HAC covariance options mirrors
those for the stand-alone covariance calculations. You may compute
symmetric or one-sided long-run covariances using nonparametric kernel
(Newey-West 1987, Andrews 1991), parametric VARHAC (Den Haan and Levin
1997), and prewhitened kernel (Andrews and Monahan 1992) methods. In
addition, EViews supports Andrews (1991) and Newey-West (1994)
automatic bandwidth selection methods for kernel estimators, and
information criteria based lag length selection methods for VARHAC and
prewhitening estimation. The new options may be found by selecting HAC
in the Coefficient covariance matrix combo box on the Options page of
the Equation dialog, and then pressing the HAC Options button.
Expanded Post-Estimation Diagnostics
- The new Scaled Coefficients
view displays the coefficient estimates, the standardized coefficient
estimates and the elasticity at means. The standardized coefficients
are the point estimates of the coefficients standardized by multiplying
by the standard deviation of the dependent variable divided by the
standard deviation of the regressor.
The elasticity at means are the point estimates of the coefficients
scaled by the mean of the dependent variable divided by the mean of the
regressor.
- The Confidence Intervals view displays a table of confidence intervals for each of the coefficients in the equation.
The Confidence Intervals dialog allows you to enter the size of the
confidence levels. These can be entered a space delimited list of
decimals, or as the name of a scalar or vector in the workfile
containing confidence levels. You can also choose how you would like to
display the confidence intervals. By default they will be shown in
pairs where the low and high values for each confidence level are shown
next to each other.
- EViews 7 now displays Variance Inflation Factors.
Variance Inflation Factors (VIFs) are a method of measuring the level
of collinearity between the regressors in an equation. VIFs show how
much of the variance of a coefficient estimate of a regressor has been
inflated due to collinearity with the other regressors.
- The new Coefficient Variance Decomposition
view of an equation provides information on the eigenvector
decomposition of the coefficient covariance matrix. This decomposition
is a useful tool to help diagnose potential collinearity problems
amongst the regressors. The decomposition calculations follow those
given in Belsley, Kuh and Welsch (2004).
- Influence statistics
are a method of discovering influential observations, or outliers. They
are a measure of the difference that a single observation makes to the
regression results, or how different an observation is from the other
observations in an equation’s sample. EViews provides a selection of
six different influence statistics: RStudent, DRResid, DFFITS,
CovRatio, HatMatrix and DFBETAS.
- Leverage plots
are the multivariate equivalent of a simple residual plot in a
univariate regression. Like influence statistics, leverage plots can be
used as a method for identifying influential observations or outliers,
as well as a method of graphically diagnosing any potential failures of
the underlying assumptions of a regression model.
- The ARMA frequency spectrum
view of an ARMA equation shows the spectrum of the estimated ARMA terms
in the frequency domain, rather than the typical time domain. Whereas
viewing the ARMA terms in the time domain lets you view the
autocorrelation functions of the data, viewing them in the frequency
domain lets you observe more complicated cyclical characteristics.
TSLS and GMM Diagnostics
- The Instrument Summary
view of an equation is available for non-panel equations estimated by
GMM, TSLS or LIML. The summary will display the number of instruments
specified, the instrument specification, and a list of the instruments
that were used in estimation.
- The Instrument Orthogonality test,
also known as the C-test or Eichenbaum, Hansen and Singleton (EHS)
Test, evaluates the othogonality condition of a sub-set of the
instruments. This test is available for non-panel equations estimated
by TSLS or GMM.
- The Regressor Endogeneity Test,
also known as the Durbin-Wu-Hausman Test, tests for the endogeneity of
some, or all, of the equation regressors. This test is available for
non-panel equations estimated by TSLS or GMM.
A regressor is endogenous if it is explained by the instruments in the
model, whereas
exogenous variables
are those which are not explained by instruments. In EViews’
TSLS and GMM
estimation, exogenous variables may be specified by including a
variable as both a
regressor and an instrument, whereas endogenous variable are
those which are specified in the regressor list only.
- The Weak Instrument Diagnostics
view provides diagnostic information on the instruments used during
estimation. This information includes the Cragg-Donald statistic, the
associated Stock and Yugo critical values, and Moment Selection
Criteria (MSC). The Cragg-Donald statistic and its critical values are
available for equations estimated by TSLS, GMM or LIML, but the MSC are
available for equations estimated by TSLS or GMM only.
EViews 7.1
EViews 7 Add-Ins
At the heart of the EViews 7.1 upgrade is a new,
easy-to-use EViews Add-ins infrastructure that provides seamless access
to user-defined programs using the standard EViews command, menu, and
object interface.
Add-ins offer you an exciting new way of running EViews programs. You
may readily define Add-ins that augment the EViews language with
user-defined commands, specify new menu entries for point-and-click
program interaction, and display program output in standard EViews
object windows.
Using Add-ins, you can add user-defined features of power and
sophistication that are virtually indistinguishable from built-in
features. Get started by downloading and installing any of the Add-ins currently available on the QMS website (with the promise of more to come).
The Add-In Infrastructure
An EViews Add-in is a program which extends the functionality of EViews. Any EViews program file is a candidate to be an Add-in.
What makes an Add-in more than just an ordinary EViews program is the
degree to which it may be integrated with the rest of EViews. With just
a bit of effort, an EViews Add-in may be designed so it is virtually
indistinguishable from a built-in feature.
In particular, the Add-in infrastructure allows you to:
Using Add-Ins
Once installed and configured, you can use the Add-in just like any in-built EViews routine.
Issue an Add-in object command or open an object and select the Add-in
menu item, and EViews will run an object-specific program. Or enter a
global command or select the corresponding main menu item and EViews
will run the global program.
Used alongside new EViews 7 features for creating dialogs and customizing output, the only limit is your imagination.
Downloading Add-Ins
All EViews users may benefit immediately by installing prepackaged
Add-ins which add functionality to EViews. A single click is all that
you need to download and install any of the Add-ins currently available
on the QMS website, with the promise of more to come.
The easiest way to get started using Add-ins in EViews 7.1 is to
download and install an Add-in package from the EViews website. Simply
go to the main menu in EViews 7.1 and select Add-ins/Download Add-ins
to open your browser and navigate to the EViews website where you may
read the descriptions of the various Add-ins packages. Alternately, you
may manually point your browser to http://www.eviews.com/Addins/addins.shtml to display the Add-ins page, where you may examine the currently available selection of predefined Add-In packages.
To download an Add-in package to your computer, simply click on package
name. Your browser will prompt you to open the file using EViews. Click
on OK and EViews will do the rest.
More Info
Since Add-ins are a new
feature of EViews 7.1, they are not documented in the printed EViews 7
manuals. For additional detail, see the electronic documentation
provided with your EViews 7.1 update.
To access the EViews 7.1 Help system discussion of Add-ins, you may click on the Add-ins Help button on the Add-ins management dialog. The latter is accessed from the main EViews menu by selecting Manage Add-ins... Alternately, you may select Help/Quick Help Reference/What's New in EViews 7.1 for information of Add-ins and other new EViews 7.1 features.
To access the EViews 7.1 supplemental PDF documentation, select Help/EViews 7.1 Supplement (pdf) from the main menu, or navigate to the Docs subdirectory of your EViews installation.
|
|
