diff -ur statsmodels-0.6.1/setup.py statsmodels-0.6.1.p0/setup.py

--- statsmodels-0.6.1/setup.py	2014-12-02 18:04:08.000000000 +0100

+++ statsmodels-0.6.1.p0/setup.py	2016-04-20 21:46:18.105349920 +0200

@@ -134,7 +134,8 @@

                               (spversion, min_versions['scipy']))

     try:

-        from pandas.version import short_version as pversion

+        import pandas

+        pversion = pandas.__version__[:6]

     except ImportError:

         install_requires.append('pandas')

     else:

diff -ur statsmodels-0.6.1/statsmodels/tools/testing.py statsmodels-0.6.1.p0/statsmodels/tools/testing.py

--- statsmodels-0.6.1/statsmodels/tools/testing.py	2014-12-02 16:54:52.000000000 +0100

+++ statsmodels-0.6.1.p0/statsmodels/tools/testing.py	2016-04-20 21:47:21.129490034 +0200

@@ -17,8 +17,7 @@

 def is_pandas_min_version(min_version):

     '''check whether pandas is at least min_version

     '''

-    from pandas.version import short_version as pversion

-    return StrictVersion(strip_rc(pversion)) >= min_version

+    return StrictVersion((pandas.__version__[:6])) >= min_version

 # local copies, all unchanged