Editing Omitted-variable bias (section)

{{Short description|Type of statistical bias}}
{{More footnotes|date=July 2010}}

In [[statistics]], '''omitted-variable bias''' ('''OVB''') occurs when a statistical model leaves out one or more relevant variables. The bias results in the model attributing the effect of the missing variables to those that were included.

More specifically, OVB is the [[estimator bias|bias]] that appears in the estimates of [[parameter]]s in a [[regression analysis]], when the assumed [[Statistical model specification|specification]] is incorrect in that it omits an independent variable that is a determinant of the dependent variable and correlated with one or more of the included independent variables.