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Statistical Glossary

Ordinary Least Squares Regression:

Ordinary least squares regression is a special (and the most common) kind of ordinary linear regression . It is based on the least squares method of finding regression parameters.

Technically, the aim of ordinary least squares regression is to find out those values [^a] and [^b] of parameters a ("intercept") and b ("slope") in the simple linear regression model


yi = a + b xi;   i = 1,...,N

that minimize the sum of squares of residuals:


N
å
i=1 
(yi -
^
a
 
-
^
b
 
xi )2

See also: multiple least squares regression

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