The rise and fall of extraneous estimation: Lessons from econometric history?

It is possible to view econometric history as the retrospective assessment of intellectual resource allocations. This paper uses such a perspective to examine the history of extraneous estimation. Independently proposed by Marschak (1939, Econometrica 7, 332-335) and Wold (1940, Efterfragan pa jordbruksprodukter och dess kanslighet for prisoch inkomstforandringar (The demand for agricultural products and its sensitivity to price and income changes)), extraneous estimation was widely used as a collinearity solution in demand analysis from 1950 to 1980. We give a detailed account of the origins of this procedure and the theoretical work that clarified the statistical structure that underpinned it. The subsequent literature is then assessed in terms of the optimal use of available econometric tools and the interaction between theory and applications. We find that optimal econometric procedures were rarely used and that theoretical refinements continued to be published well after extraneous estimation had ceased to be a useful tool for demand analysis.