Introduction

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Deriving the OLS Estimator

Using matrix notation, let n denote the number of observations and k denote the number of regressors.

The vector of outcome variables \mathbf{Y} is a n \times 1 matrix,

\mathbf{Y} = \left[\begin{array}
  {c}
  y_1 \\
  . \\
  . \\
  . \\
  y_n
\end{array}\right]

\mathbf{Y} = \left[\begin{array}
  {c}
  y_1 \\
  . \\
  . \\
  . \\
  y_n
\end{array}\right]

The matrix of regressors \mathbf{X} is a n \times k matrix (or each row is a k \times 1 vector),

\mathbf{X} = \left[\begin{array}
  {ccccc}
  x_{11} & . & . & . & x_{1k} \\
  . & . & . & . & .  \\
  . & . & . & . & .  \\
  . & . & . & . & .  \\
  x_{n1} & . & . & . & x_{nn}
\end{array}\right] =
\left[\begin{array}
  {c}
  \mathbf{x}'_1 \\
  . \\
  . \\
  . \\
  \mathbf{x}'_n
\end{array}\right]

\mathbf{X} = \left[\begin{array}
  {ccccc}
  x_{11} & . & . & . & x_{1k} \\
  . & . & . & . & .  \\
  . & . & . & . & .  \\
  . & . & . & . & .  \\
  x_{n1} & . & . & . & x_{nn}
\end{array}\right] =
\left[\begin{array}
  {c}
  \mathbf{x}'_1 \\
  . \\
  . \\
  . \\
  \mathbf{x}'_n
\end{array}\right]

The vector of error terms \mathbf{U} is also a n \times 1 matrix.

At times it might be easier to use vector notation. For consistency, I will use the bold small x to denote a vector and capital letters to denote a matrix. Single observations are denoted by the subscript.

Least Squares

Start:
y_i = \mathbf{x}'_i \beta + u_i

Assumptions:

1. Linearity (given above)
2. E(\mathbf{U}|\mathbf{X}) = 0 (conditional independence)
3. rank(\mathbf{X}) = k (no multi-collinearity i.e. full rank)
4. Var(\mathbf{U}|\mathbf{X}) = \sigma^2 I_n (Homoskedascity)

Aim:
Find \beta that minimises the sum of squared errors:

Q = \sum_{i=1}^{n}{u_i^2} = \sum_{i=1}^{n}{(y_i - \mathbf{x}'_i\beta)^2} = (Y-X\beta)'(Y-X\beta)

Solution:
Hints: Q is a 1 \times 1 scalar, by symmetry \frac{\partial b'Ab}{\partial b} = 2Ab.

Take matrix derivative w.r.t \beta:

\begin{aligned}
  \min Q           & = \min_{\beta} \mathbf{Y}'\mathbf{Y} - 2\beta'\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{Y} +
  \beta'\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{X}\beta \\
                   & = \min_{\beta} - 2\beta'\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{Y} + \beta'\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{X}\beta \\
  \text{[FOC]}~~~0 & =  - 2\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{Y} + 2\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{X}\hat{\beta}                  \\
  \hat{\beta}      & = (\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{X})^{-1}\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{Y}                              \\
                   & = (\sum^{n} \mathbf{x}_i \mathbf{x}'_i)^{-1} \sum^{n} \mathbf{x}_i y_i
\end{aligned}

\begin{aligned}
  \min Q           & = \min_{\beta} \mathbf{Y}'\mathbf{Y} - 2\beta'\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{Y} +
  \beta'\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{X}\beta \\
                   & = \min_{\beta} - 2\beta'\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{Y} + \beta'\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{X}\beta \\
  \text{[FOC]}~~~0 & =  - 2\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{Y} + 2\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{X}\hat{\beta}                  \\
  \hat{\beta}      & = (\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{X})^{-1}\mathbf{X}'\mathbf{Y}                              \\
                   & = (\sum^{n} \mathbf{x}_i \mathbf{x}'_i)^{-1} \sum^{n} \mathbf{x}_i y_i
\end{aligned}