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Sorry that I'm assuming that the skill set needed for becoming a RA in STR and OT is the same... So, I've done some research, but my responses in terms of the knowledge of the program and programming languages are really really varied. stata: the standard tool used in STR/OT "in the past" R: quickly catching up and replacing stata SQL: mostly no need Excel: very useful Python: not strictly required, but would be very useful if there's no data available (someone told me that very often profs just happen to have a research idea and as ra I'd be expected to find out the relevant data) The thing is that I really don't have the time to learn all these skills...I have to make trade-offs...but I'm wondering, how? A phd student told me to learn stata and python, but another told me to learn r and python as stata is being used much less frequently and r is a much useful program to learn Completely overwhelmed... Besides, can I also know the level of econometrics knowledgeneeded to do ra? Would it be fine if I don't know about it at all? Or a beginner level understanding of it is required? Perhaps even an intermediate one? I was wondering if some of you would be so kind as to help me with these doubts... Thx!

Hello, I am a undergraduate student studying economics in the hopes of one day pursuing a PHD. I have downloaded STATA and am faced with the task of self study. Would anyone have tips or advice on how to go about learning this software package in a way that is geared towards economics. I figure any RA position would want you to prove your proficiency with the software. I just wonder how you would show that. At my university, I have found some previous class assignments from an econometrics class that require the use of STATA. I am thinking it may be a good idea to mess around with those assignments and see what I can do with them. Maybe I could even use the assignments as a badge of proof, a way to show proficiency in STATA. If anyone has advice for me, I would be happy to hear it. Thank you.

Hello guys, I passed the first round for some full-time RA positions and am now preparing for the data tasks. If I use, say, Stata, how detailed should my comments on the code be? Furthermore, what about the complexity of the code? I heard that if you simply use built-in commands for stochastic frontier estimation, for instance, professors will not be impressed, but they might be impressed if you build towards that from scratch to show programming skills and your understanding of the underlying processes. Finally, what kind of online resources would you suggest checking in case I face some difficulties in writing the code? I know about Stata website - it provides discussions of so many interesting cases - but what about R/Matlab/Python? I will be glad to receive any other related piece of advice from you. Thanks!

I want to collapse (mean) "15 variables", by (household) + casewise This is because different households have missings in different variables. The problem is if I collapse them all at the same time, I will be deleting missing observations and not missing observations. I am thinking on, for each x-var in "15 variables", collapse x and save. Then append all the files. It sounds easy, but How can I program it? how can I make a repeated collapse and save for each variable? any suggestion?

This summer I started working at a government agency as a graduate assistant, and one of my supervisors (an epidemiologist) asked me to learn SAS. After a first week of pain and suicidal thoughts, I got the hang of it and now I'm on my way to getting good at it. Still, I always have Stata open, just in case. I wonder how many people in econ actively use SAS and if it does anything that Stata doesn't. So far I've been able to replicate procedures in both programs, and the only difference is that when I use SAS I feel like I know something. Stata feels like asking someone for a piece of cake and SAS feels like telling the person how to make your cake. I confess I haven't dug deep enough in any of the programs to see any major differences in functionality between them. Of course, Stata is a lot easier to use, but is that just it? Is there any other reason why people in econ overwhelmingly prefer Stata?

Hello everyone, my name is Ashfaque Qureshi, i am living and working in Sukkur Sindh Pakistan, would love to explore this forum and ask many questions regarding statistical packages such spss and stata, as iam keen to learn both of them or at least wanted to have command on stata, what thing will be necessary to have command on the usage of spss or stata. quite worried to learn them as my upcoming job work requires skills at least any one or both of them

Hey guys, Sorry for posting something less than related, but I'm getting desperate. I want to try and SAVE time by getting Stata to make my regression tables pretty for me rather than making them and changing them with every new model or adjustment to a model. I have spent so much time messing around with their overly complicated helpfiles. So I am just trying to make a summary statistics table. I am using estPost tabstat, followed by esttab to get Stata to produce latex code. MY ISSUE IS: I want to reduce the number of significant digits in output. The %9.2f is not doing it for me! HELP!

I am working on the panel data and this is my first time working on it. Moreover, I have Stata 9.1 version. However, all the commands I found on internet gives Stata 10 or 11 commands. Can somebody please help with the commands for panel data to use for the stata 9.1 version? I mean how to create ids etc?