Multivariate Analysis

In statistics, the term multivariate analysis applies to a wide and divergent set of statistical tools. In the most general terms, multivariate analysis involves the study of more than one dependent variable simultaneously. The most common statistical tool used in legal scholarship, multiple regression, technically would not fit under the heading of multivariate analysis because regression techniques generally focus on examining the determinants of a single dependent variable.

However, some advanced regression techniques are multivariate. For example, in instances in which two or more dependent variables are thought to be related (for example, law students' grade point averages and their likelihood of passing the bar exam), multivariate regression or seemingly unrelated regression techniques exploit the covariance between the outcome variables. This allows a researcher to test ...