All SHAZAM users should upgrade to Version 9. Below is a list of some new features available with Version 9. Note that the list describes changes to Version 8. Users of Version 7 will obtain many more new features by upgrading to Version 9.

• SHAZAM Professional Edition is a new Windows version of SHAZAM. The how to run chapter (pdf file) can be viewed. Information for the SHAZAM Professional Edition is available.
  
  
• The Windows and Macintosh versions of SHAZAM are distributed on CD-ROM. The CD-ROM includes html files for the SHAZAM Guide and examples to accompany the SHAZAM Version 9 User's Reference Manual.
  
  
• Windows SHAZAM and some other versions now provide an option to get output in html form, allowing the user to display and print text and graphics output using a Web browser. The output file can also be put on a Web server to display output.

    New Options

Many new options have been added and hundreds of small changes have been implemented to improve existing commands. Some of the new options are:

• New features include pooled time-series cross-section models with unbalanced panels, Poisson regression, and estimation of distributed lag models with polynomial inverse lags.
  
  
• New test statistics include additional statistics for testing for equality of mean and variance with the STAT command. The DIAGNOS command now provides Hansen tests for parameter instability, White heteroskedasticity tests and DeBenedictis and Giles FRESET tests. Granger causality test statistics can be obtained as described in the chapter DISTRIBUTED-LAG MODELS in the Version 9 User's Manual. The CONFID command will calculate a confidence interval for the population mean as well as a confidence interval for the error variance.
  
  
• The DISTRIB command has been enhanced to include options for calculating properties of the Bernoulli, Cauchy, Erlang, exponential, extreme value, geometric, logistic, lognormal, negative binomial, Pareto, Pascal, Poisson, standard power function and Weibull distributions.

    New Commands

• The FUZZY command is a new command for implementing fuzzy set econometrics. This methodology has useful application for models where the dependent variable is unobservable. For example, Draeseke and Giles have applied fuzzy set modelling to the problem of measuring the underground economy.
  
  
• The SMOOTH command is a new command for implementing moving averages, exponential smoothing and seasonal adjustment of time series.
  
  
• New commands for the analysis of financial time series are STOCKGRAPH, PORTFOLIO, CALL and PUT. Some online documentation can be viewed.
  
  
• The GRAPH command provides an interface to the gnuplot program for preparing graphs and histograms. This replaces the PLOT command available in previous versions. The new commands AXISFMT and TIMEFMT provide options for setting dates on the x-axis for time series plots.

    Incompatibilites with previous versions

In previous versions, the READ command set the NOREWIND option as the default. In Version 9, the READ command loads the data set starting at the first record of the data file. If multiple READ commands are used to load data sequentially from a data file, then the NOREWIND option must be specified.

In previous versions, the WRITE command set the NOREWIND option as the default when a FILE command was used to assign a file to a unit number. The REWIND option is the default in Version 9.

For the GENR and GEN1 commands the expression X**-A is not permitted. This should be entered as X**(-A). The expression -X**A is evaluated as -(X**A). That is, -X**A is interpreted as 0-X**A. In previous versions the expression -X**A was evaluated as (-X)**A. The SET NOUMINUS command can be used to obtain the priority of operations that was effective in previous SHAZAM versions.

Release Date: September 2000