Econintersect: The development of the basic tools of market analysis and economic activity measurement has taken place over a period of more than 2,600 years, although there have been big gaps between the major events in the development. The largest gap covered an interval of 2,400 years. Harpreet Bedi has prepared a video that traces the milestones of development of univariate time series, the simplest of the tools used by traders and econometrics today.
Watch video at end of article.
A comment on LinkedIn by Valerii Salov says that there is no direct link to the development of the first concept (cyclicality) around 620 BC attributed to the mathematician Thales by Bedi). (Note: Wikipedia gives the life span for Thales as c. 624 BC to c. 546 BC, so the work attributed to Thales is more likely to have occurred around 600 BC +/- than the 620 date mentioned by Bedi.) The first documented attribution was by Aristotle nearly 300 years later. Salov also indicates that some of the work attributed to Thales may actually have been adopted by him from Egypt. Early records indicate development of simple geometry relationships as early as 1,850 BC in Egypt.
But the quibble about Thales does not detract from the basic theme that the elements of time series analysis have derived from three events, one 2,600 or more years ago, a second about 200 years ago and a third a little over 80 years ago. Watch the video:
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