Re: st: question about weights in histograms

[Steven Joel Hirsch Samuels <sjhsamuels@earthlink.net>]

Round the weights to the nearest integer and use these as frequency  
weights.  -histogram- is not a survey command and so is unaffected by  
-svyset-.   The results will be nearly identical to  what you would  
get if you estimated  the per cent in each category using -svy:  
proportion-.  By the way, in most complex surveys the weights have  
been trimmed to reduce total error: bias^2 + se^2.  So you cannot  
expect 'unbiased' estimates even with the original weights.

-Steve

On Oct 10, 2007, at 12:02 PM, Scott Cunningham wrote:


> I am using 5% Census and March CPS data (United States) to construct
> histograms.  These data include probability weights.  I know that
> histogram can adjust for frequency weights, but apparently not
> explicitly for probability weights that are not integers.  If I
> -svyset- the data using the perweight, will -histogram- construct
> unbiased estimates of the population?  Here is my code
>
> . svyset [perweight=perwt]
> . histogram tax, by(white, col(1)) percent
>
> where "tax" is an income tax variable, and the data is
> individual-level for the March CPS.  For the Census, I use a different
> variable isntead of "tax" and the data is household-level instead.
teven  Samuels

sjhsamuels@earthlink.net
18 Cantine's Island
Saugerties, NY 12477
Phone: 845-246-0774
EFax: 208-498-7441




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