I discuss a command that computes ordinary least-squares (OLS) results in Mata, paying special attention to the structure of Stata programs that use Mata work functions.
This command builds on several previous posts; at a minimum, you should be familiar with Programming an estimation command in Stata: A first ado-command using Mata and Programming an estimation command in Stata: Computing OLS objects in Mata.
This is the fifteenth post in the series Programming an estimation command in Stata. I recommend that you start at the beginning. See Programming an estimation command in Stata: A map to posted entries for a map to all the posts in this series.
An OLS command with Mata computations
The Stata command myregress11 computes the results in Mata. The syntax of the myregress11 command is
myregress11 depvar [indepvars] [if] [in] [, noconstant]
where indepvars can contain factor variables or time-series variables.
In the remainder of this post, I discuss the code for myregress11.ado. I recommend that you click on the file name to download the code. To avoid scrolling, view the code in the do-file editor, or your favorite text editor, to see the line numbers.
I do not discuss Read more…
We often use probit and logit models to analyze binary outcomes. A case can be made that the logit model is easier to interpret than the probit model, but Stata’s margins command makes any estimator easy to interpret. Ultimately, estimates from both models produce similar results, and using one or the other is a matter of habit or preference.
I show that the estimates from a probit and logit model are similar for the computation of a set of effects that are of interest to researchers. I focus on the effects of changes in the covariates on the probability of a positive outcome for continuous and discrete covariates. I evaluate these effects on average and at the mean value of the covariates. In other words, I study the average marginal effects (AME), the average treatment effects (ATE), the marginal effects at the mean values of the covariates (MEM), and the treatment effects at the mean values of the covariates (TEM).
First, I present the results. Second, I discuss the code used for the simulations.
Results
In Table 1, I present the results of a simulation with 4,000 replications when the true data generating process (DGP) satisfies the assumptions of a probit model. I show the Read more…
\(\newcommand{\epsilonb}{\boldsymbol{\epsilon}}
\newcommand{\ebi}{\boldsymbol{\epsilon}_i}
\newcommand{\Sigmab}{\boldsymbol{\Sigma}}
\newcommand{\betab}{\boldsymbol{\beta}}
\newcommand{\eb}{{\bf e}}
\newcommand{\xb}{{\bf x}}
\newcommand{\xbit}{{\bf x}_{it}}
\newcommand{\xbi}{{\bf x}_{i}}
\newcommand{\zb}{{\bf z}}
\newcommand{\zbi}{{\bf z}_i}
\newcommand{\wb}{{\bf w}}
\newcommand{\yb}{{\bf y}}
\newcommand{\ub}{{\bf u}}
\newcommand{\Xb}{{\bf X}}
\newcommand{\Mb}{{\bf M}}
\newcommand{\Xtb}{\tilde{\bf X}}
\newcommand{\Wb}{{\bf W}}
\newcommand{\Vb}{{\bf V}}\)I present the formulas for computing the ordinary least-squares (OLS) estimator and show how to compute them in Mata. This post is a Mata version of Programming an estimation command in Stata: Using Stata matrix commands and functions to compute OLS objects. I discuss the formulas and the computation of independence-based standard errors, robust standard errors, and cluster-robust standard errors.
This is the fourteenth post in the series Programming an estimation command in Stata. I recommend that you start at the beginning. See Programming an estimation command in Stata: A map to posted entries for a map to all the posts in this series.
OLS formulas
Recall that the OLS point estimates are given by
\[
\widehat{\betab} =
\left( \sum_{i=1}^N \xb_i’\xb_i \right)^{-1}
\left(
\sum_{i=1}^N \xb_i’y_i
\right)
\]
where \(\xb_i\) is the \(1\times k\) vector of independent variables, \(y_i\) is the dependent variable for each of the \(N\) sample observations, and the model for \(y_i\) is
\[
y_i = \xb_i\betab’ + \epsilon_i
\]
If the \(\epsilon_i\) are independently and identically distributed (IID), we estimate Read more…