Fred Wolfe <[email protected]> asks if -mi estimate- intentionally
omits the group information when used with -xtmixed-:
> I wonder if I am missing something obvious.
>
> xtmixed haq_ duration i.cocat ib3.q4_onsetyear fage i.sex ib2.edcat
> ib45000.totinco if _mi_m==2 || patkey: duration , cov(uns) mle
>
> reports the Group variable," "Number of obs," and the "Number of groups"
>
> However, mi estimate, cmdok dots):
> xtmixed haq_ duration i.cocat ib3.q4_onsetyear fage i.sex ib2.edcat
> ib45000.totinco if _mi_m==2 || patkey: duration , cov(uns) mle
>
> reports the number of obs, but not the group variable or the number of
> groups. I suppose the number of groups could differ according to each
> imputation. But it would be helpful to have some information about
> groups, for if I come back to the data later with -mi estimate using,
> I may have forgotten the group N. So is it intended that we should
> calculate the group N before running the mi estimate, or is there some
> simple way I have overlooked to get this information?
Fred is not missing anything obvious. -mi estimate- is an estimator on its
own and produces generic output, containing information specific to
multiple-imputation analysis, for all estimation commands. When used with
survey estimation commands, -mi estimate- does report additional information
about the survey design. We are considering customizing the output of -mi
estimate- to include some additional information specific to other supported
estimation commands in the future.
Fred also asks if there is a way to get information specific to the used
estimation command after -mi estimate-. In general, the answer is 'yes' as
long as the results are constant across imputations. For certain estimation
results ( e.g., -e(N)-, -e(N_strata)-) you can also access their varying
values. See the section 'Saved Results' in '[MI] mi estimate' for details.
Having said that, there are estimation results which cannot be retrieved after
-mi estimate- for technical reasons. The group information saved by -xtmixed-
in the -e(N_g)- matrix is one of them. We will add an option for saving
requested estimation results from each imputation in a future update.
Meanwhile, Fred needs to access this information manually. He can specify the
-noisily- option with -mi estimate- to see the output from each -xtmixed- run.
To access -xtmixed-'s estimation results Fred can use the -mi xeq- command to
run -xtmixed- on a chosen imputation.
Estimation results specific to estimation commands are preserved after -mi
estimate- as long as they are constant across imputations. Estimation results
which vary across imputations are set to missing and their names are saved in
macros -e(names_vvs_mi)- (for scalars), -e(names_vvl_mi)- (for macros), and
-e(names_vvm_mi)- (for matrices). Values of certain varying estimation
results (e.g. -e(N)-, -e(N_strata)-) are returned as matrices. Also, some
estimation results, (e.g., -e(ll)-, -e(deviance)-) are always reported as
missing after -mi estimate-.
-- Yulia
[email protected]
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