## H. Analysis of Variance and Measure of Fit

We have already defined the Residual Sum of Squares (RSS) as . This is the total variation in the OLS prediction errors in the sample. (Since we know the mean error is 0, then RSS is the sum of squared deviations from the mean. There are two other variations that are useful to define in the LRM:

(In both expressions, the second component is Y "bar", the sample mean of the Y observations.) Recall that one of our numerical properties of OLS is that the average predicted value equals the . Therefore, ESS is also a "sum of squared deviations from mean" as is TSS and RSS. In other words, ESS is how much the predicted values in the sample vary, while TSS is how much the actual values vary. Note: The Stata output table for a regression refers to "ESS" as "Model Sum of Squares"

Let us derive a formula for ESS:

In other words, ESS depends only the values of X and .

With a little bit of algebra we can go on to show

That is, the OLS estimates of the LRM decompose the total variation in Y into an explained component (explained by X) and an unexplained or residual component. The Stata regression output table shows this analysis of variance by reporting TSS, ESS, and RSS.

Notice that under A7, each Y observation as well as the sample mean of Y are normally distributed. Therefore is normally distributed. TSS is therefore a sum-of-squared normal variables with mean 0. To calculate TSS, one needs to have calculated , which imposes one linear restriction on the deviations. The degrees of freedom associated with TSS are therefore N-1. We have already argue that to calculate RSS requires two restrictions embodied in the two OLS normal equations. The degrees of freedom associated with RSS is N-2. What about ESS? Under assumptions A0-A7 is normally distributed, and ESS depends only on its value. Even though ESS is defined as the sum of N normal variables, there are N-1 dependencies among them. ESS is therefore associated with a chi-squared random variable with 1 degree of freedom.

This leads us to the conclusion that OLS not only decomposes the variance in the Y observations, it only decomposes the degrees of freedom in the variation:

   N-1          =       1          +       N-2
D.of F. for TSS = D. of F. for ESS + D. of F. for RSS

The preceding discussion of the analysis of variances leads quite easily into a measure of how well the OLS estimates fit the sample data. First, imagine a data set in which all the values of X and Y line up on a line:

In this case, OLS will minimize the squared errors and will recover the line. The predicted values for each observation will be identical to the actual values: for all i. The OLS estimates would perfectly fit the data. Or, in other words, RSS = 0. But then this must mean that TSS = ESS: all the variation in Y is explained by the linear regression model.

Now take the other extreme in which there is no correlation between X and Y in the sample. The sample is simply a flat cloud of points:

In this case, the OLS estimate would lead to: , and for all i. Notice that if , then ESS = 0. That is, none of the variation in Y is explained by variation in X. Therefore TSS = RSS, all the variation is left unaccounted for by the model. This would be the worst fit of the data.

If we assign a "1" to a perfect fit and a "0" to the worst fit, then all other cases should lie somewhere in between. X should explain some of the variation in Y, but generally not all of it. A logical measure of fit would therefore be:

        R² = Measure of fit = ESS /TSS

This ratio is usually referred to as R² or "R-squared". The interpretation is simple:
R² is the proportion of total variation in Y in the sample explained by the OLS regression line. It is a rough measure of how close the sample data lie to the estimated regression line.
R² in and of itself does not tell us anything about whether the LRM is correct. A poor measure of fit does not imply a poor model. It could be that the fit is poor (low value of R²) simply because many other factors help determine Y (high value of ). Conversely, a good measure of fit does not imply a good model. One can have a good fit (high R²) and have a very dumb and misleading model. For example regressing a person's weight in kilograms on a person's weight in pounds will lead to a perfect fit. But the result doesn't tell us anything about weight. It only tells us that we properly converted from kilograms to pounds (or vice versa). Believe it or not, it is not uncommon for people to report results almost as silly as this.

This document was created using HTX, a (HTML/TeX) interlacing program written by Chris Ferrall. Document Last revised: 1997/1/5

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