Business Econometrics
using SAS Tools (BEST)
Class I An Introduction to
Econometrics, Analytics and
SAS
Class Design
Begin with Basic Stories
Basics of Data Management with SAS
Econometric Analysis Relevant to
Businesses
Econometric Analysis using SAS
Analyzing SAS Output
Applying Econometric Analysis to
Business Cases using SAS Live
Examples
What is Statistics?
Study of the collection, organization, analysis,
interpretation and presentation ofdata
Theoretical statistics the mathematical basis of the
process of statistical analysis. Most research and work
on finding new tools, fixing errors in existing tools and
improving them
Applied Statistics using the existing tools of
statistics on certain data to improve our
understanding of the problem in hand
What type of assumptions?
What is Normal?
Simple concept like average (mean) and standard deviation
Introduction to Analytics and the
Wonderful World of Big Data
Analytics - Identifying patterns and trends in data
Sometimes goes beyond just statistics
Communicating the findings to enhance business or
strategic decision making
Big Data The size of the datasets are so large that
applying direct statistical tools are not easy
Most assumptions on the data are difficult to verify
Working with Big Data
Beyond statistics
Relationships matter
Ex: Walmart 1 million customer transactions per
hour
Econometrics and its Problems
with a Data Centric View
Patterns real or mined?
Theoretical basis the WHY?
Extrapolation external validity
Prediction possibilities
Simulate but when, why and how?
Introduction to SAS (GUI) The SAS
Enterprise Guide
Good News Using SAS Enterprise
Guide (EG) is easier than using SAS
Bad News Corporations use Base
SAS not the EG. So, learn to program.
Lets open SAS EG
The 1 Impression
st
Syntax: Notions and Corrections
Some Simple Errors and Easy Fixes
Rules of the Language
Must remember
Semi colon (;) at the end of every statement
Can continue statements t next line, but cannot split a
word into two
Missing data is marked as (.) when it is numeric and
is blank when it is alphanumeric
Variable names must start with a letter or underscore
(_) and can contain only letters, numbers and
underscore (_)
Must be less than 32 characters
Case insensitive
Some Things to Remember about
SAS Programs
Essentially 2 parts, which may be repeated
over and over again
DATA steps, which begin with a DATA statement
Creates data
Reads and modifies data
Appends data
Remember it moves line-by-line
PROC steps, which begin with a PROC statement
Analysis, graphics, analytics, forecasting using the data
Provide outcome results and reports
Commenting: Making your Code
Human (not just Machine) Readable
The code you write is not for your
eyes only
Bosses, colleagues and clients
Students! Yes, you will start training
people too
Code needs to be transferable
Creating Data Sets
Open SAS EG
File>New>Data
Choose File Name Choose Location to Save
Provide Column (Variable) Names and Types
Provide Display and Input Format
Delete all other Rows
In the created empty dataset, type in
If you try to enter letters in a column designed
to be numeric, you will get an error message
Variables
Name Provide understandable names, can begin
with (_) or letter
Type character or numeric
Group In Numeric, it can be Date, Time,
Currency or just Numbers
Length Number of integer length
Display actual format and reading format
Read-in format (Informat) This is how you (or the
user) enters the numbers or character
If you try to enter letters in a column designed to
be numeric, you will get an error message
Reading and Importing Data
File>Open>Data if it is a SAS Dataset
To Import an Excel File File>Import Data>
Local Computer> and then you can
Region to Import
choose the tabs,
regions to import (beginning and end rows) or entire
file
specify if first line is a column heading
Column Option
For every column, the usual variable attributes
Save option
Export to Excel
File>Send To>MS Excel
Using the same, you can send it to
Word or your email recipients