I have created the figures below using Eviews (data are taken from IMF World Economic Outlook). Thanks to various statistical packages, we can now do a lot without knowing much about econometric theory!
The first figure shows inflation rate, real GDP growth rate, and unemployment rate for the period 1980 - 2015 in Japan. In recent years, we have low growth and low inflation...how to overturn these?
Macro Data for Japan
Now, what would happen if we have shocks to the Japanese economy? The answer is in the second figure (created using vector autoregressions, or VARs). It shows four selected impulse response functions (IRFs). What can you see? Well, here's the point: computers help us create beautiful figures and calculate for us, but we cannot interpret the output without being familiar with statistic/econometrics! So, it's time to study them! (This is a very good textbook on econometrics. I read it a few years ago.)
Impulse Response Functions
FYI: Lawrence Christiano has excellent lecture notes on VARs (you need a little mathematics, though). Here's the interesting paper on VARs. IMF comments on Abenomics.
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