Welcome to Understanding Econometrics – a growing collection of visual explanations designed to make difficult ideas in economics, statistics, and mathematics easier to understand.

The main aim is to build intuition. Technical subjects are often presented by beginning with definitions, formulae, and theorems, leaving students to work out what they actually mean afterwards. Here, we usually try to do things the other way around!

Ideas are introduced using simple examples, pictures, stories, and concrete problems, before connecting these back to the mathematics. The goal is not to avoid technical material, but to make the algebra and formal theory easier to understand when we eventually meet it.

Much of the site is centred on econometrics, together with the probability and statistics needed to understand it properly. However, it is gradually expanding to cover mathematical methods and other areas of economics too. Much of the material is aimed at undergraduate economics students, though graduate economics students and students of mathematics may also find parts useful.

These slides are intended to complement, rather than replace, university lectures, notes, and textbooks. In particular, they can provide the gist of a difficult concept before you return to a more formal or technical treatment in lecture slides, now armed with a better idea of what is going on.

Each slide is designed to work as a short, accessible introduction to a topic. But they are also accompanied by further explanations and technical notes for anyone who wants to investigate the details more carefully.

Choose a subject and then a topic to get started – or, if you are feeling adventurous, try a Random Slide!

For a concise recap of the probability and statistics needed to begin studying econometrics, see Probability and Statistics Recap for Econometrics.

You can also use the search bar to find a particular topic, and press ← and → to move between slides.