Eviews Tutorial

for Economic Forecasting

Lei Lei

Getting Started
Open

Eviews window Create a workfile Import data Edit and Save data View and plot data View summary statistics Generate new variables Run simple regression

1.Open Eviews window-1

Click on the Eviews icon-Main Eviews window:

title bar: at the top, inlcluding menus such as

File, Edit, etc. command window: immediately below the title bar. You can execute commands either by clicking on command buttons or by typing equivalent command into the command window.

1.Open Eviews window-2

Status line:

At the bottom, providing additional information on the status of various settings of the program.
Work area:

Between the command window and the status line, where the results of operations will be displayed.

2.Create a Workfile-1

Click on the File menu, then on New, and on Workfile - the most important object container in Eviews, which can be used to store data
In the window appeared:
Choose the type of your data. For example, you can select Dated-regular frequency for time-series data Input the start and end dates of your data Name the workfile (optional Click OK.

2.Create a Workfile-2
The

workfile now contains two entries:

c constant, where Eviews saves the

intercept of the regression resid residuals, where Eviews saves the residuals of last regression

3.Import data-1

Import from excel file:

Open the file, make sure the observations for different

variables are arranged in columns, with names on top. Copy the names of the variables, and remember the Upper left data cell (location of first data, i.e., A2), then close the spreadsheet. In main Eviews window, after creating the workfile, click File, then Read Text-Lotus-Excel, and specify the location of data file. In the opened dialog box, fill in the Upper left data cell, then past the names of the variables, click OK.

3.Import data-2
Enter

data manually:

click on Quick in the title bar, and then

on Empty Group (Edit Series).

Next enter the variables, starting with the

name, in the grey box to the immediate right of obs.

3.Import data-3
Import

ASCII data form a textfile:

Make sure the observations for different

variables are arranged in columns, with names on top. In the Eviews workfile window, click Procs, and Read Text-Lotus-Excel, then browse for location the text file. In the dialog box, select from a range of input options.

4.Edit and Save data-1

Edit

data:

click the Edit+/- button on the workfile toolbar, move to the observation in question, enter the correct value, and press Enter.
Paste

data into word file: click freeze, then you can copy and past. data: click Print button.

Print

4.Edit and Save data-2

Save

data:

Save an entire workfile: click Save in the workfile

toolbar, or click on File and then SaveAs in the main menu.

Store individual series: clcik Store in the workfile

toolbar. If you need to retrieve the series, you can simply click on Fetch in the workfile toolbar.

5. View and plot data-1

View

data

One variable double click on variable in

workfile window, click on view, then spreadsheet; or simply click on Sheet

Multiple variables in workfile window, select

the name of variables needed, right click and choose open group view/spreadsheet

5. View and plot data-2

Plot

data

One variable double clicking on the name of

the variable, then click on View /Graph/Line in the resulting series window.
Multiple variables open the variables as a

group, then click View /Multiple Graph/Line.

Edit: double click on the graph or click on

Options button to edit.

6.View summary statistics

One

variable

Click the View button at the upper-left corner of

the workfile, then click on Descriptive Statistics, and Histogram and Stats

Multiple variables
First open the variables as a group

View Descriptive Statistics in the group

View correlations

7. Generate new variables

In the workfile window, click Genr button, then specify the new variable using equation formula. Alternatively, in the command line, use command genr to generate new variables. For example, natural logs: genr lqvetts=log(qvetts) genr unemplsq=unemployment*unemployment lagged variable: genr lprice=price(-1)

8.Run simple regression-1

In

main Eviews window, click Quick, then Estimate Equation. Alternatively, in Workfile window, click Object, and New Object, then click Equation. Equation Speciation: write down the equation, then choose the method (usually least squares) and sample period.

8.Run simple regression-2

Saving

equation: using Name Option

Note:

If run linear regression, you may just input the name of the variables instead of the whole formula. First is the dependent variable, then write down all independent variables. (e.g: Y c X1 X2 Xk)

8.Run simple regression-3

The interpretation of the coefficients: It indicates the effect of a unit change in the relevant variable on the dependent variable, holding all other factors constant (ceteris paribus).
Exporting table of results: Save table using Freeze/Name Open table, select all, then copy and choose formatted, thus paste in word file.

8.Run simple regression-4

Test:
Click View/Coefficient Tests/Wald-Coefficient

Restrictions.
View

results in the equation window:

Regression output: click View, then Estimation

output Residuals: click View, then Actual, Fitted redisual

The end Thank you!