Parameter Calculation by Least Squares Minimization
The
method of least squares consists of minimizing

with respect to
β. Setting
θ = X
β, we minimize:

subject to:

Let

be the least squares estimate of
β. The fitted regression

is denoted by:

The elements of

are called the
residuals. The value of:
is called the
residual sum of squares. The matrix:

which is the regression matrix without the first column of 1s, is called the predictor data matrix.