ARTNeT Capacity Building Workshop on Use of Gravity Modelling

Introduction to Stata
for regression analysis
Instructor: Yong Yoon, PhD
Chulalongkorn University
March 19, 2013
 Part 1
• Overview of Stata
– User interface, command syntax, help system, file
management, working with do-file editor
– Updating Stata and accessing user-written
routines
– Data management: basic principles of organization
and transformation
– Data management tools and data validation
– Introduction to graphics
– Producing publication-quality output
2
User interface, command syntax, help system, file management,
working with do-file editor

• Stata is a general-purpose statistical software package created in

1985 by StataCorp. It is used by many businesses and academic
institutions around the world. Most of its users work in research,
especially in the fields of economics, sociology, political science,
and epidemiology. Stata's full range of capabilities includes * Data
management * Statistical analysis * Graphics * Simulations *
Custom programming.
• Stata has traditionally been a command-line-driven package that
operates in a graphical (windowed) environment. Stata version 11
(released July 2009) contains a graphical user interface (GUI) for
command entry. Stata may also be used in a command-line
environment on a shared system (e.g., Unix) if you do not have a
graphical interface to that system.

3
 getting started

• Starting Stata
Double-click the Stata icon on the desktop (if there is one) or
select Stata from the Start menu.

• Closing Stata
Choose eXit from the file menu, click the Windows close box
(the `x' in the top right corner), or type exit at the command
line. You will have to type clear first if you have any data in
memory (or simply type exit, clear).

• Tip: Always do your work in an appropriate working directory

. cd c:\data
. pwd
4
 user interface

• The Stata screen is divided in 4 parts. In “Review” you can see the last
commands that have been executed. In “Variables” you can see all the
variables in the current database. In “Results” you can see the commands’
output. Finally, in the window “Command” you can enter the commands.

Past commands here

Results here

Variable list here

Type commands here

5
Stata toolbar

• Quick Notes
1. Stata is case-sensitive.
2. . is the Stata prompt.
3. When you work, always use a -do- file
4. To see content of a –do- file, type, e.g.,
. type profile.do

6
 first commands

• Stata can be used like a calculator by display

. display 2+2
. display exp(1)
. display ln(100)
. display “cumulative area under the standard
normal left of 1/96 is “ normal(1.96)
. display ttail(20,2.1)

7
 more first commands

• Let’s get some data:

. use PennTab
. describe
. summarize
. list country wbcode year pop rgdpch openk
grgdpch in 1/10
. list country wbcode year pop rgdpch openk
grgdpch if wbcode == "THA“
. list country year if missing(rgdpch)
. browse

describe, summarize, list

Note: if and in clause
8
 Stata’s command syntax

• There are two types of “grammar” in Stata:

• Let’s have some examples:

. summarize pop rgdpch if country == "THA"
. sort country
. by country: tabstat pop rgdpch, s(n mean sd)

9
 first regression

• For a scatter plot, we can use Stata’s graph twoway command

as follows:
. graph twoway scatter rgdp_m open_m
• Let’s take the natural logs of income and openness variables
. generate ln_rgdp = ln(rgdp_m)
. generate ln_open = ln(open_m)
• Then the command to invoke ordinary least squares (OLS) in
Stata is:
. regress ln_rgdp ln_open
• To visualize the (linear) fitted line, type:
. graph twoway (scatter ln_rgdp ln_open)
(lfit ln_rgdp ln_open)

10
 help system

• Stata has extensive online help. Click on Help, or to obtain

help on a command (or function) type
. help command_name, [nonew]
which displays the help on a separate window called the
Viewer.
• If you don’t know the name of the command you need you
can search for it. Stata has a search command with a few
options, type help search to learn more; but I prefer findit,
which searches the Internet as well as your local machine and
shows results in the Viewer.
. findit Student's t.
. help help

11
 file management (1)

• Stata reads and saves data from the working directory, usually c:\data,
unless you specify otherwise (say, if using a thumb drive).
• You can change directory using the command
. cd [drive:]directoryname
and to see which working directory you are using typde pwd (type help
cd for details.)
• I recommend that you create a separate directory for each research
project you are involved in, and start your Stata session by changing to
that directory.
• Stata has other commands for interacting with the operating system,
including mkdir to create a directory, dir to list the names of the files in
a directory, type to list their contents, copy to copy files, and erase to
delete a file.
• You can (and probably should) do these tasks using the operating system
directly, but the Stata commands may come handy if you want to write a
program to perform repetitive tasks.

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 file management (2)

• File extensions usually employed (but not required) include:

.ado automatic do-file (defines a Stata command)
.dct data dictionary, optionally used with infile
.do do-file (user program - batch files containing Stata commands)
.dta Stata binary dataset
.gph graphics output file (binary) viewable only in Stata
.log text log file
.smcl SMCL (markup) log file, for use with Viewer
.raw ASCII data file (or often as .txt)
.sthlp Stata help file
• These extensions need not be given (except for .ado). If you use other
extensions, they must be explicitly specified.
• Data files in Stata format are given the extension .dta. These are created
using save filename and read in with use filename.
• Other types of data input files are .raw for raw data usually in ASCII
format, .dct for data plus variable names. Often data is stored in .txt
or .dat extensions.
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 working with a -do- file (batch mode)
/* Example do-file */

version 11 • Quick Notes:

clear all
• Open New Do-File Editor
// Change default settings • You can type doedit
set memory 500m
• Type a few lines and save as “lesson1.do”
set more off
• You can record all your results in a log
// Setting up the log file (optional) file:
capture open log log using quicktour,
set logtype text
log using quicktour.txt, replace text replace
• After running the .do file, see what
// Loading data the .log file shows
use PennTab
• capture log close is used
// Summary statistics before we open a log (in case there is
summarize already one open).
… • Make sure you hit enter for the last line
// Closing log file and exit Stata
log close 14
 Updating Stata and accessing user-written routines

• To find out whether updates exist for your Stata. and

initiate the simple online update process itself type
the command
. update query

• Stata has many user-written commands which can be

downloaded from the internet. You should keep your
Stata up-to-date. You do this by typing
. update all
and follow the instructions given.

15
 accessing user-written routines

• Stata native graph types are not ideal for viewing categorical-
variable distributions and histograms. In this case, for example, it is
nice to employ the user-written program called catplot, which you
can obtain by typing:
. findit catplot
• Simply follow the links to install. Then try:
. catplot income_grp percent
. catplot rgdp_m, percent by(income_grp)
• There are many specially written (by Stata and by independent
authors) commands and routines you can use, easily found over the
web.
• You can even get Stata data online (e.g. Penn Tables, World Bank
data, etc.)

16
 comments and annotations

• Comments can be written on a line starting with // or * (the line is

ignored).
• // can be used at the beginning or end of a line (must be preceded
by one or more blanks if at the end); everything on the line after //
is ignored.
• You can also put long comments inside these /* */ to block
comment them out (everything between /* and */ is ignored).
• You can continue a line in a -do- file using ///. This instructs Stata
to join the next line following from /// with the current line; this
must be preceded by one or more blanks; It is essentially used
make long lines more readable.
• Stating #delimit ; allows you to end lines with ;
• To terminate this command type #delimit cr

17
 Data management: basic principles of organization and
transformation

• Stata is an excellent tool for data management and

manipulation: moving data from external sources
into the program, cleaning it up, generating new
variables, generating summary data sets, merging
data sets and checking for merge errors, collapsing
cross–section time-series data on either of its
dimensions, reshaping data sets from “long” to
“wide”, and so on.
• In this context, Stata is an excellent program for
answering ad hoc questions about any aspect of the
data.

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 variable types

• Stata recognizes two types of variables: string and numeric.

Subsequently, each variable can be stored in a number of
storage types (byte, int, long; float, and double for numeric
variables and str1 to str224 for string variables).
• If you have a string variable and you need to generate
numeric codes, you may find useful the command encode. For
instance, consider a variable "name" that takes the value
"Nick" for the observations belonging to Nick, "John" for the
observations belonging to John, and so forth. Then you may
find useful the following:
. encode name, gen(code)
• A numeric code-variable will be generated (e.g. it takes the
value 1 for the observations belonging to Nick, the value 2 for
the observations belonging to John, and so forth).

19
 variable names

• A variable name may have a maximum of 31 letters,

and you can use underscores (_) and/or digits. The
first letter however must be a letter or underscore.
• Stata is case sensitive; e.g., gdppc or gdp_pc or
gdp_per_capita or gdpPerCapita are all different
variable names.

20
 missing values

• Missing values in numeric variables are represented by dots.

• Some databases have special characters for missing values
(often particular numbers like 9, 66, 99, …). Missing value
codes may be converted to missing values using the command
. mvdecode
• For instance, if the variable “gender” takes the value 9 if
missing value, then typing mvdecode gender, mv(9) will
replace by dots all values of variable gender equal to 9.
• Missing values (.) are represented internally as very large
numbers.
• Hence, to check for missing you need to write
var >= . (and not var == .)
• For a string variable "" (an empty string; not blank string) is
used to represent a missing observation.
• Compare the following:
list id if missing(age)
list id if age >= .

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 observation subscripts _n and _N

• The observational subscripts _n and _N are very useful for

data manipulation, especially when combined with by.
• _N is the total number of observations (say, within each by
group.)
• _n is a unique internal identifier, starting at 1 and going up to
N, (and when combined with by, the identifier is unique
within the group.) That is _n is a running counter within each
by group.

22
 making categorical variable

• The recode command in Stata can be used to group a

numeric variable into categories. This can be dome in a
number of ways, but the following is the most compact
method:
. recode rgdp_m (0/1000 = 1 "Low income")
(1000/4000 = 2 "Lower middle income")
(4000/12000 = 3 "Upper middle income")
(12000/max = 4 "High income"),
generate(income_grp)
• There is also another method to change string to numeric
and vice versa is by Stata’s encode and decode commands.

23
 loading data (1)

• Comma-separated (CSV) files or tab-delimited data files may

be read very easily with the insheet command—which
despite its name does not read spreadsheet files. If your file
has variable names in the first row that are valid for Stata,
they will be automatically used (rather than default variable
names). You usually need not specify whether the data are
tab- or comma-delimited. Note that insheet cannot read
space-delimited data (or character strings with embedded
spaces, unless they are quoted).
• If the file extension is .raw, you may just use
. insheet using filename
to read it. If other file extensions are used, they must be given:
. insheet using filename.csv
. insheet using filename.txt

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 loading data (2)

• A free-format ASCII text file with space-, tab-, or comma-

delimited data may be read with the infile command. The
missing-data indicator (.) may be used to specify that values
are missing.
• The command must specify the variable names. Assuming
divorce.raw contains string and numeric data, to load this
type
. infile str45 country gdppc d_rate grwth
using divorce.raw, clear
• Note str45 would read up to a maximum 45-letter country of
origin and the number of observations will be determined
from the available data.

25
 loading data (3)

• The infile command may also be used with fixed-format data,

including data containing undelimited string variables, by creating a
dictionary file which describes the format of each variable and specifies
where the data are to be found. The dictionary may also specify that more
than one record in the input file corresponds to a single observation in the
data set.
• If data fields are not delimited—for instance, if the sequence ‘102’ should
actually be considered as three integer variables. A dictionary must
be used to define the variables’ locations. The byvariable() option
allows a variable-wise dataset to be read, where one specifies the number
of observations available for each series.
• An alternative to infile with a dictionary is the infix command,
which presents a syntax similar to that used by SAS for the definition of
variables’ data types and locations in a fixed-format ASCII data set: that is,
a data file in which certain columns contain certain variables. The
_column() directive allow contents of a fixed-format data file to be
retrieved selectively. infix may also be used for more complex record
layouts where one individual’s data are contained on several records in an
ASCII file.
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 loading data (4)

• A logical condition may be used on the infile or infix

commands to read only those records for which certain
conditions are satisfied: i.e.
. infix using employee if sex=="M"
. infile price mpg using auto in 1/20
where the latter will read only the first 20 observations from
the external file. This might be very useful when reading a
large data set, where one can check to see that the formats
are being properly specified on a subset of the file.
• If your data are already in the internal format of SAS, SPSS,
Excel, GAUSS, MATLAB, or a number of other packages, the
best way to get it into Stata is by using the third-party product
StatTransfer. StatTransfer will preserve variable labels, value
labels, and other aspects of the data, and can be used to
convert a Stata binary file into other packages’ formats.
27
 inputting data by hand

• A third way, which we may use (usually with small datasets), is

inputting data from the command window. This involves
typing a number of lines, e.g.

. input str45 country gdppc d_rate grwth

. Korea 17219 47.4 6.5
. Singapore 21705 17.2 5.2
. end

• The simplest way to create/edit a dataset is through Stata’s

spreadsheet-like Data Editor, which is invoked either by
clicking the in the toolbar, or selecting in the Window –
Data/Data Editor from the top menu bar, or by typing the
command
. edit
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 creating a new dataset

• If you want to save (as a Stata data file), simply type

. save filename, replace
• Saving a file as a Stata .dta file is useful, and calling it is
especially easy; Just type
. use filename, clear

• If however you want save your data as an ASCII file, type

. outsheet using filename.txt, replace

• If you do not specify an extension (e.g. .txt or .csv, comma

for comma separated variable data files), Stata automatically
save your data as an extension .raw ASCII file.

29
 sorting (and merging/combining datasets)

• The sort command arranges the observations of the current data

into ascending order. This command is particularly useful in two
situations.
• Stata has a more powerful sort command gsort.
• 1. When using the by varlist: prefix (discussed before) data must
be sorted by varlist, i.e.
. sort region
. by region: summarize gnppc
• 2. When merging datasets, the data must be sorted by so that
observations can be uniquely identified so that the merge
command can match observations correctly, i.e.
. use dataset1
. sort id
. merge 1:1 id using dataset2
• 3. To combine datasets, use the append command:
. use dataset1
. append using dataset2
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 creating, editing, renaming (new) variables

• The generate command is often used to create a new variable.

For example,
. generate male_d = male==1 & !missing(male)
. gen agegrp = ”young” if age<18
• To change the contents of an existing variable you must use
the replace command, i.e.
. replace variable = expression
• To change variable names simply use the rename command. i.e.
. rename old_name new_name
• To help keep track of variables, it is useful to use the labels
command, e.g.,
. label data “Divorce Data: 2002”
. label variable d_rate “Divorce Rate”

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 Introduction to graphics

• Stata graphics are excellent tools for exploratory data

analysis, and can produce high-quality 2-D publication-
quality graphics in several dozen different forms. Every
aspect of graphics may be programmed and customized,
and new graph types and graph “schemes” are being
continuously developed. The programmability of graphics
implies that a number of similar graphs may be
generated without any “pointing and clicking” to alter
aspects of the graphs.
• You have already seen an example in your first –do- file.

32
 Producing publication-quality output

• To save the current graph on disk using Stata's own format, type graph save
file_name. This command has two options, replace, which you need to use if
the file already exists, and asis, which freezes the graph (including its current style)
and then saves it.
• The default is to save the graph in a live format that can be edited in future sessions, for
example by changing the scheme. After saving a graph in Stata format you can load it
from the disk with the command graph use file_name. (Note that graph
save and graph use are analogous to save and use for Stata files.) Any graph stored in
memory can be displayed using graph display. You can also list, describe,
rename, copy, or drop graphs stored in memory, to learn more type
. help graph_manipulation
• If you plan to incorporate the graph in another document you will probably need to
save it in a more portable format. Stata's command graph export filename can export
the graph using a wide variety of vector or raster formats, which is usually understood
from the file extension. Vector formats such as Windows metafile (wmf or emf) or
Adobe's PostScript and its variants (ps, eps, pdf) contain essentially drawing instructions
and are thus resolution independent, so they are best for inclusion in other documents
where they may be resized. Raster formats such as Portable Network Graphics (png)
save the image pixel by pixel using the current display resolution, and are best for
inclusion in web pages. An example I use is:
. graph export fig61.png, width(400) replace
33
some examples of Stata’s graphical capabilities

34
 seven basic types of graphs

. histogram histograms
. graph twoway two-variable scatterplots,
line plots, and many others
. graph matrix scatterplot matrices
. graph box box plots
. graph pie pie charts
. graph bar bar charts
. graph dot dot plots

• We will mainly make use of graph twoway

35
 fitting lines

• To produce a simple scatter plot of two variables, use the command

. graph twoway scatter ln_rgdp ln_open
• To show the fitted regression line as well, we use lfit (qfit is
used for quadratic fit).
. graph twoway (lfitci ln_rgdp ln_open) (scatter
ln_rgdp ln_open), title(“Openness and Economic
Development: 1990-2004”)
• To label the points using text included in another variable, we can
use the mlabel(varname) option. For example, we add the country
names to the plot:
. graph twoway (lfitci ln_rgdp ln_open,
legend(off)) (scatter ln_rgdp ln_open,
mlabel(country))
• legend(off) hides the legend.

36
 tidying up labels

• Use mlabv() option to tidy things up (for example):

. gen pos=3
. replace pos = 2 if wbcode == "DMA"
. replace pos = 6 if wbcode == "THA" | wbcode ==
"WSM"
. graph twoway (lfitci ln_rgdp ln_open) ///
(scatter ln_rgdp ln_open, mlabel(wbcode)
mlabv(pos))
• Note that pos = 3 is the default (labels are shown at the 3 O’clock
position.)
• The next few lines indicates where you would like the position of the
labels to be (according to the clock)
• Finally, you need to add mlabv(pos)to instruct Stata to follow your
commands.

37
 titles, legends and captions

• Again tonnes of options here like title() and subtitle(),

legend(), note() and caption(). Type help title_options to
learn more.
. graph twoway (lfitci ln_rgdp ln_open)
(scatter ln_rgdp ln_open, mlabel(wbcode)
mlabv(pos)),
title("Openness and Economic Development (1990-
2004)")
ytitle("Per Capita Income (logs)") xtitle("Openness
(logs)")
legend(ring(0) pos(5) order(2 "linear fit" 1 "95%
CI"))
• There are other options that control the scaling and range of the
axes, including xscale() and yscale(), which can be arithmetic,
log, or reversed, type help axis_scale_options to learn more.

38
 Part 2
• Regression Basics (with Stata)
– Inference and the idea of sampling distribution
– Regression: Estimation and inference
– OLS assumptions and properties
– Post-estimation regression diagnosis: Violating the
classical assumptions (consequences, detection,
solution)
– The problem of endogeniety again!

39
inference

40
 simple random sample

• As statisticians we would like to know some characteristic

(parameter) of a population of interest. To do so, we usually take a
sample, calculate some statistic which is used to estimate the
population parameter.
• - The most basic type of sample is the Simple Random Sample
(SRS), which will serve as our reference point for most of the
discussion that follows.

• In a SRS, each possible sample of the population of size n has an

equal probability of being chosen as the sample.
41
 example (tossing a coin)

• Imagine tossing a fair coin 100 times. How many heads

do you expect?
• Let’s simulate this with Stata (preferably in a -do- file)
. set obs 100
. generate toss = runiform()
. replace toss = 0 if toss <=.5
. replace toss = 1 if toss > .5
. list toss in 1/10
. egen tt = sum(toss)
. display tt
• This gives us the number of heads in 100 tosses. Try
running this a number of times.
42
 egen

• egen [type] newvar = function(arguments) [if exp] [in range]

[, options]
• Examples:
. egen maxpay = max(salary)
maxpay is the maximum salary.
. egen lrgest = rmax(var1 var2 var3)
makes lrgest equal to the maximum among 3 variables.

• You an use (r)mean, (r)min, (r)sd, (r)sum in place of (r)max

above.

43
 some common functions in Stata

. abs(x): the absolute value of x

. exp(x): the exponential function of x
. int(x): the integer obtained by truncating x towards zero
. ln(x) or log(x): the natural logarithm of x (if x>0)
. log10(x): the log base 10 of x (for x>0)
. logit(x): the log of the odds for probability x: logit(x) = ln(x/(1-x))
. max(x1,x2,...,xn): the maximum of x1, x2, ..., xn, ignoring
missing values
. min(x1,x2,...,xn): the minimum of x1, x2, ..., xn, ignoring
missing values
. round(x): x rounded to the nearest whole number
. sqrt(x): the square root of x if x >= 0

44
 simulation in Stata

• Let’s do this 10,000 times and keep a record of the number of heads you
get.
• To do this you need to write a small program in Stata.
program cointoss
drop _all
set obs 100
gen toss = runiform()
replace toss = 0 if toss <=.5
replace toss = 1 if toss > .5
egen tt = sum(toss)
end
• To run the program, simply type:
. simulate x = tt, seed(10101) reps(10000) nodots:
cointoss

45
 . histogram x, bin(10000)

25
20
15
Density

10
5
0

30 40 50 60 70
tt

the sampling distribution

46
 Regression: Estimation and inference

• Often, we are interested in studying the relationship

between two or more variables.
• Correlation is easy in Stata with correlate.
• But regression, the workhorse of modern
econometrics, is much more powerful!
• We have already seen the command:

regress depvar [indepvars] [if] [in] [weight]

[, options]

47
 does openness matter for economic growth?

• Let’s c with continue with the Penn Tables to answer a simple

question (by regression):
ln_rgdp = α + β ln_open + u
• And 𝛽 = Σi xi yi / Σi xi2 (where xi and yi are deviations from the mean).
• We will use data for 36 country averages (chosen randomly) for
1990-2004.
. using PennTab, clear
. drop if year < 1990 | year > 2004
. collapse (mean) pop_m = pop
rgdp_m = rgdpch
open_m = openk
grwth_m = grgdpch, by(wbcode)
. sample 36, count
• The last line command Stata to select 36 countries randomly. IT is
often convenient to set seed to some number so that we don’t
get a different set of countries every time we run the –do- file.

48
 always nice to start with histograms

• histogram rgdp_m, freq bin(25) title(Real Per Capita

GDP)
Real Per Capita GDP
8

Openness

20
6
Frequency

15
4

Percent
2

10
0

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 5

(mean) rgdpch
0

0 100 200 300

(mean) openk

• histogram open_m, percent bin(25) title(Openness)

49
 OLS in Stata

• Running the regression in Stata is easy:

. generate ln_rgdp = ln(rgdp_m)
. generate ln_open = ln(open_m)
. regress ln_rgdp ln_open
• Let’s fit a line
. graph twoway (lfit ln_rgdp ln_open) ///
(scatter ln_rgdp ln_open), ///
title("Openness and Economic Development (1990-
2004)") ///
ytitle("Per Capita Income (logs)")
xtitle("Openness (logs)")
• You can also save the graph with the graph export command:
. graph export OLS.png, width(400) replace

50
 lfit

Openness and Economic Development (1990-2004)

NLD HKG
AUT MAC
10

DEU
ESP ISL BHS
PRT BRB
ATG
RUS
LVA DMA
9

MEX PAN
CUB
THA LBN
ECU GNQ
PER
NIC AZE
8

PAK CIV
WSM
COG
SYR MNG
LAO
BEN
7

NGA
SOM
ERI
COD
6

linear fit 95% CI

5

1 2 3 4 5 6
Openness (logs)

51
 R-squared

• Stata stores regression results in e() a.k.a e-class variables. These can be
regarded as repositories into which Stata puts the various results for its
own housekeeping.
. quietly regress ln_rgdp ln_open
. ereturn list
• Try also matrix list e(b) after the ereturn list

SSE SSR
R2   1 (0  R 2  1)
SST SST

• How “good” is the regression? One measure is the so called R-squared (R2)
which can be interpreted as the fraction of sample variation in Y that is
explained by X. You can easily read the R-square in the regression output, but
below, I show how to calculate it manually.
. display 10.30/47.606
. display e(mss)/(e(mss)+e(rss))

52
 Assumptions of OLS

(A1) Error terms have mean zero: E{ui | X’s} =0

(A2) All error terms have the same variance (homoskedasticity):
Var{ui | X’s} = constant
(A3) The error terms are mutually uncorrelated (no autocorrelation):
cov{ut,, ut-j} = 0
(A4) All error terms are independent of all x variables (strict
exogeneity):
cov{ut,, X’s} = 0 (or {u1 ,… uN} is independent of X’s)
(A5) No perfect (high) multicollinearity.
(A6) Correct specification.

• These assumptions taken together imply that E{ yi | xi } = xi’β.

• Under (A4) we can treat the explanatory variables as fixed
(deterministic).

53
 Properties of OLS

• Under assumptions (A1) and (A4):

– 1. The OLS estimator is unbiased.
That is, E{𝛽 } = β.
• Under assumptions (A1), (A2), (A3) and (A4):
– 2. The variance of the OLS estimator is given by
Var{𝛽 } = σ2( Σ xi xi’ )-1
– 3. The OLS estimator is BLUE: best linear unbiased
estimator for β (a.k.a Gauss-Markov Thm.)

54
 properties of OLS (2)

• Because the true (population) variance σ2 is usually

unknown, we estimate this by the sampling variance of the
residuals, 𝜎 2 .
• Because we have k parameters when we minimize the
residual sum of squares, we require a degrees of freedom
correction:
𝜎 2 = (n - k)-1 Σ 𝑢2
• Under assumptions (A1)-(A4), 𝜎 2 is an unbiased estimator
for σ2.
• We estimate the variance (covariance matrix) of 𝛽 by
𝜎 2 ( Σ xi xi’ )-1
• The square root of the kth diagonal element is the standard
error of 𝛽k.
55
 properties of OLS (3)

• A convenient assumption (that automatically replaces (A1)

(A2) and (A3)) is that all error terms have a normal
distribution.
ui ~ NID(0, σ2)
which is shorthand for: all ui are independent drawings
from a normal distribution with mean 0 and variance σ2.
(“normally and independently distributed”).
• Together with assumptions (A4), the OLS estimator 𝛽 will
have a normal distribution with mean β and covariance
matrix Var{𝛽} = σ2( Σi xi xi’ )-1.
• With non-spherical errors, we can re-specify the covariance
matrix into a Generalized Least Squares (GLS) form.
56
 prediction

• The regression model can be written as:

𝒍𝒏 _𝒓𝒈𝒅𝒑 = 5.63 + 0.68 ln_open
(0.965) (0.222)
• Once we have the estimated coefficients, we can use the
regression results to predict (fit) the dependent variable.
. predict yhat
• Say you want to predict the per capita income (in dollars) for a
typically average open country.
. egen avg_open = mean(open_m)
. gen ln_avg_open = ln(avg_open)
. dis exp(_b[ln_open]*ln_avg_open + _b[_cons])
• Similarly, to predict the per capita income (in dollars) for
openness of 100 (similar to Thailand):
. dis exp(_b[ln_open]*ln(100) + _b[_cons])

57
 inference

• Again recall the regression model:

𝒍𝒏 _𝒓𝒈𝒅𝒑 = 5.63 + 0.68 ln_open
(0.965) (0.222)
• After running a regression, the first thing to check is whether
the sign makes sense, whether the coefficients are statistically
significant and whether the size of the coefficients are
reasonable (SSS).
• We employ the t-test to check for statistically significance:
• The null: The test statistic:

• We reject the null if the test statistic is larger then critical-t

• OR (what is the same thing) if p-value is smaller than α.
58
 examining the residuals

• To get the residuals is, we can use Stata’s options

with the predict command. In fact there are various
residuals:
• Here we calculate 3 common types of residuals:
. predict uhat, residuals // raw residuals
. predict stdres, rstand // standadized residuals
. predict jkres, rstud // studentized residuals
. label var jkres "Jack-knifed or studentized
residuals“

59
 outlier, leverage and influence

• To get the hat matrix and Cook's distance we use two more
options of predict, hat and cook
. predict hres, hat // leverage
. predict cres, cook // cook distance (influence)
• Leverage points are an unusual x-values that may control
certain model properties. Often these do not effect the
estimates of the regression coefficients, but it certainly will
dramatic effect on the model summary statistics such as R2
and the standard errors of the regression coefficients.
• Influence points usually have a moderately unusual x-
coordinate, and the y value is unusual as well. The influence
points however have a noticeable impact on the model
coefficients in that it pulls the regression model in its direction.
• To detect an outlier, we can find cases with standardized or
jackknifed residuals greater than 2 in magnitude
. list ehat stdres jkres hres cres if abs(stdres) >
2 | abs(jkres) > 2, clean
60
 leverage and influence (2)

• We will use a scalar to calculate the maximum acceptable

leverage, which is 2p/n in general, and then list the cases
exceeding that value (if any). (Note p is the number of
parameters and n is the sample size.)
. scalar hresmax = 2*3/36
. list wbcode uhat stdres jkres hres cres if
hres > hresmax, clean
• The 6 most influential countries can be identified by:
. gsort -cres
. list wbcode cres in 1/6, clean
• Stata provides some useful quick graphs for inspecting the
residuals:
. rvfplot, mlabel(wbcode) yline(0)
. lvr2plot, mlabel(wbcode)

61
 residual plots

• Here is the standard residual plot often useful to summarize the

residuals:
. label var yhat "Fitted values"
. scatter stdres yhat, mlabel(wbcode) yline(0)
title("Standardised Residuals“)
• For a Q-Q plot type (as a normality check)
. qnorm stdres, title("Q-Q Plot for Standardized
Residuals")
• We could however employ the Jarque-Bera test for normality:

• where S is skewness, EK is excess kurtosis (kurtosis -3), and n is the

sample size.
• It turns out that this test statistic can be compared with a χ2 (chi-
square) distribution with 2 degrees of freedom. The null hypothesis
of normality is rejected if the calculated test statistic exceeds a
critical value from the χ2(2) distribution. (Can you write the code?)
62
 heteroskedasticity (and autocorrelation)

• Heteroskedasticity means non-constant variances and its presence

renders the usual t-test and F-tests invalid.
• Eye-balling is often not enough to detect heteroskedasticty, so a
formal test is preferred. It is easy to perform a heteroskedasticity
tests in Stata using the versatile estat command
. estat hettest // Breusch-Pagan test
. estat imtest, white
. rvfplot, yline(0) // plots res against fitted values
• A similar problem (of unreliable standard errors) also occurs when errors
are autocorrelated (usually this is commonly an issue with time series
data).
• The traditional “solution” to non-constant spherical errors is to run
Weighted Least Squares (WLS) or Generalized Least Squares (GLS) as
opposed to OLS.
• The mnodern practice, however, and the one I recommend is that you
should select the [, robust] option for all your regressions to give you
the corrected (heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors) which you can
use without too much worry.

63
 serial correlation in residuals

• Serial correlation in the residuals, or autocorrelation, is common

with time series data, where we could model it as
ut = ρut-1 + et
• The Durbin-Watson statistic has traditionally been popularly used as
a test for first order serial correlation. In Stata just type:
. estat dwatson
T

 t t 1
uˆ  ˆ
u 2

DW  t 2
T

 uˆ
t 1
t
2

• 0 < DW < 4, where no autocorrelation is when ρ ≈ 2

• To test for higher order serial correlation (because DW only tests
AR1 type serial correlation), you can employ the Breusch-Godfrey
statistic:
. estat bgodfrey
64
 the sign, significance and size (SSS),
RESET and VIF

• As mentioned earlier, as a first check for any regression, you should

consider the sign, significance and size (SSS) of each parameter
estimate. Also take a quick look at the F-stat to verify the “overall
significance of the regression” (more of this a little later).
• Ramsey’s RESET provides a rough test with the null of no
specification error:
. quietly regress ln_rgdp ln_open
. estat ovtest
• Basically, after estimating the regression, it include as additional
regressor squares/cubes of fitted values and checks whether they
are jointly significant. If the null is rejected, nonlinear forms should
be considered. That notwithstanding, the RESET does not suggest
what exactly the correct alternative would be.
• For cases with more than one independent variable, you should
also test for multicollinearity (MC) by typing estat vif. Values over
10 suggest problems of MC or linear dependence.

65
 Multivariate regression

• So far we have only considered the case of a simple regression

(models with one independent variable). But life is not that simple;
often researchers would want to know how two or more
independent variables are the influence another variable.
• We introduce multivariate regression and the gravity model. The
data is a modified version from Francois, Pindyuk and Woerz (2009)
consisting of trade volume in services in 2005 between various
countries separated by sectors.
. use services, clear
. list exp imp trade sector dist gdp_exp gdp_imp if
exp == "THA"
. list exp imp trade sector dist gdp_exp gdp_imp if
imp == "THA"

66
67
 basic trade gravity model

• The basic gravity equation is used to explain the value of trade that
takes place between two countries:

ln 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑖𝑗 = 𝛼 + 𝛽1 ln 𝑔𝑑𝑝𝑖 + 𝛽2 ln 𝑔𝑑𝑝𝑗 + 𝛽3 ln 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡 + 𝑢𝑖𝑗

• We can assume 𝛽1 , 𝛽2 > 0 and 𝛽3 < 0.

• Essentially we are asking how well distance and GDP explains
bilaltral trade and how sensitive trade is to these explanatory
variables.
. gen ln_trade = ln(trade)
. gen ln_dist = ln(dist)
. gen ln_gdp_exp = ln(gdp_exp)
. gen ln_gdp_imp = ln(gdp_imp)

. regress ln_trade ln_gdp_exp ln_gdp_imp ln_dist

if exp == "THA" | imp == "THA", robust
68
 basic gravity model for THA

• Interpret this and check SSS and try these (note that many of the
commands we performed before are not allowed for after robust
estimation).
. predict yhat // finds all fitted values of y
. predict uhat, residuals // raw residuals
. estat vif // test for MC
. estat ovtest // Ramsey’s RESET
69
 testing the overall significance of the regression

• The F-test is employed to test whether all the X’s taken together (jointly) are
statistically significant.
• One form of the test statistic is (k is the number of parameters):

R 2 k  1
F
 
1  R 2 n  k 
• And as usual, if observed F-stat > critical-F at k-1 and n-k degrees of freedom
(at some appropriate α), then we reject the null of β1 = β 2 = … = β k-1 = 0 (the
regression overall is statistically insignificant). Or, reject null if the p-value is
smaller than α.
• In Stata, you can do this test manually by:
. dis "F-stat = " e(F)
. dis "p-value is " Ftail(e(df_m),e(df_r),e(F))
. dis "Crticial-F at 5% is "
invFtail(e(df_m),e(df_r),0.05)

70
 testing (linear restrictions) in Stata

• After running ln_trade on ln_gdp_exp, ln_gdp_imp, and ln_dist, we

might like to test whether the coefficient on ln_dist is in fact 0 (H0:
β3 = 0). This is of course the simple t-test. The equivalent version of
this in the F-test is provided by Stata by simply typing:
. test ln_dist
• Sometimes, we could test other restrictions like whether:
H0: β1 = β2
• In Stata just type:
. test ln_gdp_exp = ln_gdp_imp
• This is known as the Wald test (which is actually an F-test and m is
the number of restrictions):

F
SSRR  SSRUR  m  2
RUR  RR2  m
SSRUR n  k 
or
1  RUR2  n  k 
71
 the Wald test for comparing models

• We can manualize the Wald test, by running different regressions (the

unrestricted and the restricted models) and then saving in scalar for the
residuals of the respective models for further evaluation (F-test).
* Unrestricted model
. quietly regress ln_trade ln_gdp_exp ln_gdp_imp ln_dist
if exp == "THA" | imp == "THA", robust
. scalar UR_res = e(rss)
. scalar UR_n = e(N)
* Restricted model
. gen ln_tt_gdp = ln_gdp_exp + ln_gdp_imp
. quietly regress ln_trade ln_tt_gdp ln_dist if exp ==
"THA" | imp == "THA", robust
. scalar R_res = e(rss)
• And the F-stat is
. display ((R_res - UR_res)/1)/(UR_res/(UR_n - 4))
• The number of restrictions m is 1 (d.f for numerator) and n-k is 229-4 (d.f
for denominator).

72
 comparing models (2)

• We could of course use a version of the Wald test using R2

instead of the residual sum of squares (see formula 2-slides
back).
• Besides the F-test (Wald test), which in essence generalizes
the F-test, econometricians often use the LM test (Lagrange
multiplier test) based on the chi-square distribution, i.e.
LM = nR2
• There is also the Likelihood ratio test as well which compares
a null and the alternative by
2 ln L(Ho) — 2 ln L(Ha)
• In general LM ≤ LR ≤ W and all have the same asymptotic χ2 (g)
distribution. If LM rejects the null, then LR and W are sure to
reject the null as well.

73
 The problem of endogeniety

• Endogeneity (the non-zero correlation between Xi’s and the

error term) is usually a serious problem for the applied
economist.
• The main causes are:
- Missing variables (from the regression model)
- Simultaneous relationships
- Reverse causality
- (Systematic) measurement error
- Self-selection
- Serial autocorrelation
- Stochastic/deterministic trend

74
 confounding

• Omitted variable bias is a common problem that we need to

watch out for.
• After running a regression, you should ask yourself: Do I believe
the regression results? Sign? Significant? Size?
• What if there is confounding? Then this can cause a bias!

Y X

Z (confounding factor)

• Possible solutions are multivariate regression, regression using

panel data, instrumental variable techniques, Heckit model (to
correct for sample selection bias), indirect least squares, etc.
75
 confounding (2)

• Let’s take an example of confounding. Let’s ask a basic question:

How does being a landlocked country affect real income?
• To do this we can run ln_rgdp on landlock using the PennTab
database. The result:
ln _𝑟𝑔𝑑𝑝 = 8.63 − 0.7 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘
(0.09) (0.2)
• But is this conclusive? Perhaps there is something confounding?
Let’s add the variable ssa to the regression. What do we get?
ln _𝑟𝑔𝑑𝑝 = 8.91 − 0.46 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘 − 1.4 𝑠𝑠𝑎
(0.08) (0.18) (0.16)
• Surely the coefficient on landlock has changed a lot!
• Which model do you believe?

76
 non-linear forms

• Economic relationships are not always linear. In the

econometrics literature, non-linear relationships can be
modelled using:
– Quadratic transformations
– Taking logs
– Dummy regressions
– Interaction variables
• Stata’s graphics allows for a quadratic fit with qfit which is
used instead of lfit.

77
 common errors you should avoid

• Confusing correlation/regression with causation

- Regression identifies association between variables; it cannot prove
causality. Often the researcher will have to rely on theory to make
causal arguments.
• Endogeneity: Cov(u, X’s) ≠ 0
- This causes estimates to be biased and is caused by among other
things omitted variables, measurement error, reverse causality,
sample selection, simultaneous relationship, and so on.
• Relying too much on R-squared
- Often a high R-squared does not mean out regression is any good
(nor does a low R-squared mean that the regression is bad).
• Data-mining
- It is not acceptable to blindly run regressions (possibility of type-I
and type-II errors). Theory should guide you.
78
 what next?

• We have so far mainly looked at the classical regression

method by OLS. The workshop will continue with more
specific examples particularly related to gravity modelling.
• Stata has a rich library of commands for logistic/probit
regression, panel-data analysis, time-series tools, as well as
survey data and other multivariate statistical analyses.
• When dealing with other data forms, Stata requires that you
declare the type of data, for example:
. xtset n t // for panel data
. tsset t // for time-series
• For example, with survey data we invoke svyset, to declare
survival-time data use stset, for mixed and multilevel data
analysis we use xtmixed, and so on.

GOOD LUCK!

79
 references (some of my favorites)
http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/
http://www.stata.com/links/resources1.html
Statistics with Stata (Updated for Version 10) by Lawrence C. Hamilton
An Introduction to Modern Econometrics Using Stata by Christopher F. Baum
Microeconometrics Using Stata, Revised Edition by A. Colin Cameron and Pravin
K. Trivedi
• Hill, R. C., W. E. Griffiths, and G. C. Lim. 2011. Principles of Econometrics. 4th
ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
• Adkins, L. C., and R. C. Hill. 2011. Using Stata for Principles of Econometrics.
4th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
• Stock, J. H., and M. W. Watson. 2011. Introduction to Econometrics. 3rd. ed
Addison Wesley
• Verbeek, M. 2012. A Guide to Modern Econometrics. 4th ed. Wiley & Sons.
• Wooldridge, J. M. 2012. Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach. 5th
ed. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western.
• Wooldridge, J. M. 2010. Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Angrist, J. D., and J.-S. Pischke. 2009. Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An
Empiricist’s Companion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
80