Glossary

Ordinary Least Squares Regression

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

y_i = a + b x_i; i = 1,…,N

that minimize the sum of squares of residuals:

N
ï¿½
i=1

(y_i –

–

x_i )²

Browse Other Glossary Entries

Test Yourself

Planning on taking an introductory statistics course, but not sure if you need to start at the beginning? Review the course description for each of our introductory statistics courses and estimate which best matches your level, then take the self test for that course. If you get all or almost all the questions correct, move on and take the next test.