Ordinary Least Squares - Example With Real Data

Example With Real Data

The following data set gives average heights and weights for American women aged 30–39 (source: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1975).

Height (m): 1.47 1.50 1.52 1.55 1.57 1.60 1.63 1.65 1.68 1.70 1.73 1.75 1.78 1.80 1.83
Weight (kg): 52.21 53.12 54.48 55.84 57.20 58.57 59.93 61.29 63.11 64.47 66.28 68.10 69.92 72.19 74.46

When only one dependent variable is being modeled, a scatterplot will suggest the form and strength of the relationship between the dependent variable and regressors. It might also reveal outliers, heteroscedasticity, and other aspects of the data that may complicate the interpretation of a fitted regression model. The scatterplot suggests that the relationship is strong and can be approximated as a quadratic function. OLS can handle non-linear relationships by introducing the regressor HEIGHT2. The regression model then becomes a multiple linear model:

The output from most popular statistical packages will look similar to this:

Method: Least Squares
Dependent variable: WEIGHT
Included observations: 15

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