Amherst College

Department of Economics
Economics 360
Fall 2012

EViews 7.0 Quick Reference

General Information
Two types of windows
EViews window is the larger window; this is the main window.
Workfile window is the smaller window; this window is associated with a single
workfile.

EView Help
In EViews window toolbar: Click Help, then click EViews Help Topics

Turning Off Annoying Naming Questions
In EViews window: click Options, then General Options
Under Windows, click Window behavior
In the Warn on Close box, uncheck Groups and Equation-SysVAR-PoolModel
boxes

Opening and Closing Workfiles
A Workfile from a PDF File
Open a Workfile from a PDF File
Click inside the red EViewsLink box
In the File Download window: Select Open

Close a Workfile from a PDF File
In EViews window: Click File, then Exit
In Workfile window: Click No in response to the save changes made to workfile

A Workfile Stored on Your Computer
Creating a New Workfile on Your Computer from an Excel File
In EViews window toolbar: Click File and then Foreign Data as Workfile
In Open window: Select the Excel file and click Open
Follow the instructions provided by EViews

Open a Workfile on Your Computer
In EViews window: Click File, then Open, then Workfile
In Open window: Highlight filename, then click OK

Saving a Workfile on Your Computer
In EViews window toolbar: Click File and then Save

Close a Workfile on Your Computer
In EViews window: click File, then Close
Click Yes to save the changes made to workfile, No otherwise (typically, you will
want to save your changes by clicking Yes)

2
Analyzing One Variable
Descriptive Statistics (Mean, etc.) of a Single Series
In Workfile window: Double click series
In Workfile window: Click View, then click Descriptive Statistics & Tests, then click
the desired option (usually Histogram and Stats or Stats Table).
NB: the standard deviation that is printed assumes that the data are a sample rather than
a population. To calculate the standard deviation of a population, click on Stats Table to
obtain the Sum Sq. Dev. (sum of squared deviations from the mean) and then divide by
Observations (the number of observations).

Graphing a Series
In Workfile window: Double click series
In Workfile window: Click View, then click Graph, then click the desired option

Analyzing Two or More Variables
Descriptive Statistics of Two or More Series
In Workfile window: Click to highlight first series, then click while depressing <Ctrl>
highlight the second series, third series, etc.
In Workfile window: Double click on a highlighted series
In Workfile window: Click Open Group
In Workfile window: Click View, then click Descriptive Statistics, then click
Individual Sample or Common Sample
NB: there is no difference between common sample and individual samples
unless missing values are present in the workfile. Common sample eliminates all
observations in which there is one or more missing value in one of the series;
individual sample does not do so.

Covariance and Correlation Coefficient Matrices of Two or More Series
In Workfile window: Click to highlight first series, then click while depressing <Ctrl>
highlight the second series, third series, etc.
In Workfile window: Double click on a highlighted series
In Workfile window: Click Open Group
In Workfile window: Click View, and then click Covariance Analysis
In the Statistics box: Select the Covariance checkbox for covariances and/or
Correlation for correlation coefficients; then, click OK

Graphing a Scatter Diagram of Two Series
In Workfile window: Click to highlight first series, then click while depressing <Ctrl>
to highlight the second series
In Workfile window: Double click on a highlighted series
In Workfile window: Click Open Group
In Workfile window: Click View, then click Graph, click Scatter, and then click
OK

3
Generating a New Series
In Workfile window: Click Genr
In Generate Series by Equation window: Enter the formula for the new series in the Enter
equation text area; for example,
Sum of two series: NewSumVar = OldVar1 + OldVar2
Ratio of two series: NewRatioVar = OldVar1/OldVar2
Dummy variable: NewDummy = OldVar > 10000
Click OK

NB: The only permissible characters in a name are letters, digits, and the underscore(_); blank
spaces are not permitted. Some series names such as sin, cos, c, d, and res are
reserved. If you provide EViews with an improper name, EViews will not generate the series
and an Error Message box will appear; after clicking OK, you can try a different name.

Copy and Paste: EViews Text to a Word Processor Document
Highlight the text you wish to copy and paste
Right click on the highlighted area
Unless you have a good reason to do otherwise accept the defaults by clicking OK
In your word processor: Click Paste

Copy and Paste: EViews Graph to a Word Processor Document
Display the graph you wish to copy and paste
Right click on the graph and then click Copy to clipboard
Unless you have a good reason to do otherwise accept the defaults by clicking OK
In your word processor: click Paste

Sampling
Click Sample
In the Sample window choose one or both of the following options:
o Enter the sample pairs in the Sample range pair (or sample object to copy) text
area
o Enter the equation describing the sample in the IF condition (optional) text area
Click OK

NB: After completing your analysis of the sample, do not forget to turn off the
sample by restoring the Sample window text areas to their initial state; that is.
o Enter @all Sample range pair (or sample object to copy) text area
o Clear the IF condition (optional) text area

Regression Analysis
In workfile window: Highlight dependent variable first, then while depressing <Ctrl>
highlight the explanatory variables
In workfile window: Double click on a highlighted variable
Click Open Equation
In Equation Estimation window: Click OK