Kenneth Sanford, Econometric Evangelist, Advanced Analytics R&D, SAS: Ken joined SAS after working for both a large private consulting firm and holding faculty positions at the University of Cincinnati and Middle Tennessee State University . At SAS, Ken is responsible for helping to integrate the advanced analytical procedures being created by the ETS (Econometric and Time Series) development team into the business solutions offered by SAS. He is also charged with promoting the use of the newest Econometric estimation techniques to our new and existing SAS users. His background is in applied economics with special interest in Industrial Organization and Health Economics. He has articles forthcoming in the Southern Economic Journal and the Journal of Sports Economics. Ken holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Kentucky.
As an economist, I started at SAS with a disadvantage when it comes to predictive modeling. After all, like most economists, I was taught how to estimate marginal effects of various programs, or treatment effects, with non-experimental data. We use a variety of identification assumptions and quasi-experiments to make causal
Macroeconometrics is not dead: (and I wish I had paid better attention in my time series course): I wrote this on the way to see one of our manufacturing clients in Austin, Texas, anticipating a discussion how to use vector autoregressive models in process control. It is a typical use
My last post, Pitching analytics: recommendations on how to sell your story, discussed the steps I consider when winding up for an analytics pitch. In part 2 of this series I share the tips and tricks I have acquired for throwing strikes for during your analytics pitch. Like everyone, sometimes
I routinely speak with executives who tell me that the ability to “sell” analytical results is just as important as producing them. In this post I will share some of what I have learned in several years of presenting complicated analytical results to audiences, both technical and lay. Some of
I had the pleasure of speaking at the inaugural “Accounting IS Big Data” conference this past week in New York City, a meeting organized by the American Accounting Association. In addition to giving several talks, I participated in breakout sessions in which attendees discussed how analytics is used to monitor
I am noticing a trend. At the ASSA meetings in January (where economics, sociology and finance academics and practitioners gather to discuss their research) I was surprised to see how much “machine learning” was trending with economists. The session “Machine Learning Methods in Economics and Econometrics,” with papers by Susan
SAS will again be participating in the Allied Social Science Association annual meetings in January. This year the event will be held in Boston, and conference organizers expect more than 12,000 participants from a variety of backgrounds, including economics, finance and many other social sciences. One of the primary functions
This post will violate the “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” rule, because last week I had the pleasure of attending and participating in the Analytics 2014 event there and want to share some of what I heard for those who couldn’t attend. I was joined by over 1,000
Several weeks ago, I led a SAS Talks webinar on SAS/ETS emphasizing the many recent changes to the software. SAS/ETS, for those unfamiliar with the product, is SAS’s suite of econometrics, time series and forecasting tools and algorithms. While we covered a substantial amount of material in the talk, there
A while back The Wall Street Journal published the article “Corporate Economists Are Hot Again“ that chronicles the resurgence of in-house economists in corporate America. The role of a corporate economist may bring about visuals of classic economist stereotypes (watch Ben Stein play to this stereotype as a teacher in
This year the Super Bowl will take place in East Rutherford, New Jersey at MetLife Stadium just outside New York City. For the first time in this event’s 48-year history, the game will take place outdoors in a cold-weather environment, potentially subjecting players and fans to sub-freezing temperatures. The fans
