Nowadays computers are in the middle of most economic transactions. These “computer-mediated transactions ” generate huge amounts of data, and new tools can be used to manipulate and analyze this data. This essay offers a brief introduction to some of these tools and meth-ods. Computers are now involved in many economic transactions and can cap-ture data associated with these transactions, which can then be manipulated and analyzed. Conventional statistical and econometric techniques such as regression often work well but there are issues unique to big datasets that may require different tools. First, the sheer size of the data involved may require more powerful data manipulation tools. Second, we may have more potential predictors than appropriate for estimation, so we need to do some kind of variable selection. Third, large datasets may allow for more flexible relationships than simple

A systematic evaluation of high-dimensional, ensemble-based regression for exploring large model spaces in microbiome analyses

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