Deepankar Basu <[email protected]> and others have been puzzling over why use of
scalars in place of variables for intermediate results cause Deepkankar's -ml-
method -lf- likelihood maximization problem to stop working.
Here's Deepankar's method -lf- evaluator:
program myweibul_lf
version 8.1
args lnf leta lgam
tempvar p M R
quietly {
gen double `p' = exp(`lgam')
gen double `M' = ($ML_y1*exp(-`leta'))^`p'
gen double `R' = ln($ML_y1)-`leta'
replace `lnf' = -`M' + $ML_y2*(`lgam' - `leta' + (`p'-1)*`R')
}
end
In the broken version, he substitutes -scalar- for -gen double-.
Nick Cox <[email protected]> has already diagnosed the difficulty: "A
scalar can _only_ hold a single value."
I want to emphasize what Nick is saying. In method -lf-, your programs
is to calculate a log likelhood value for each observaton of the dataset:
y x1 x2 ... xn Xb lnf
-----------------------------------------
1. 5 2 7 ... 9 1.2 -.69
2. 6 8 1 ... 2 3.4 -2.30
.
.
_N. 2 3 1 ... 4 1.1 -.10
-----------------------------------------
Then -ml- sums the -lnf- column (-.69 + -2.30 + ... + -.10) to obtain the
overall log likelihood value.
In the example above, I show the LHS variable (y), the RHS variables (x1,
x2, ..., xn), and I show X*b. -ml- calculates X*b for use, and our job
(in this single-equation example) is to calculate ln(f(Xb)) and return
it in lnf.
Deepkankar's
args lnf leta lgam
So now let's look at Deepankar's program. His problem is a two-equation
model, and variables `leta' and `lgam' correspond to what I labelled
Xb in the example above.
We can use scalars in place of -gen double ...- anyplace the value is constant
across observations. For instance, if Deepankar needed ln(_pi) someplace in
his calculation, he could code
scalar lnpi = ln(_pi)
Deepkankar might even find some other places in the code where he could
substitute scalars in place of variables. For instance, Deepankar might know
that he specifies the second equation (`lgam') as an intercept only.
`lgam' would still be a variable, but the values in each of the observations
would all be the same, and if Deepkankar needed another value that was
purely a function of `lgam' and other scalar values, such as ln(_pi), he
could code
scalar term = `lgam'*lnpi
In general, however, I recommend against looking for these kind of
efficiencies for two reasons:
1. If you follow this strategy and later you want to put a full
equation on `lgam' (imagine heteroskedasticity, etc.), you
cannot. Actually, it is worse than that: You can, but you will
get the wrong answer. Understand what is happening here: For
efficiency, you write your program as if `lgam' is a scalar and
later, forgetting that, specify a model in which `lgam' varies
observation by observation.
2. If you are still determined to seek the efficiency of treating
`lgam' as a scalar, you must *NOT* specify -missing- option, or
you must write more sophisticated code. Even though you know
`lgam' is a constant, -ml- does not, so it is a variable, with
values for each observation. Only the observations being used
are filled in, and that might not include the 1st observation.
You do not, in general, have to worry about that, because by
default, -ml- drops irrelevant observations during estimation,
and restores the full dataset later.
Anyway, in my view, I have no objections to using scalars for
real scalars, such as
scalar lnpi = ln(_pi)
but I recommend treating all variables passed to you by -ml-,
args lnf leta lgam
----------- ...
|
I refer to thsee variables
as if they vary observation by observation. Use -gen double-, not -scalar-.
Finally, everything said above applies only to -ml- method -lf-. In the
other methods, your program is responsible for returning a scalar
log likelihood value, and scalars are often used inside those programs.
-- Bill
[email protected]
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