Re: st: testing differences between coefficients

[Maarten Buis <maartenlbuis@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 10:49 AM, Ebru Ozturk wrote:
> As far as I understand your e-mail, I want to do the comparison by looking at the difference. I do not do any group separation as I just focus on two different dependent variables. In terms of what is being compared (means, probabilities, odds etc.) I really do not know. How can I decide about that? or Does it depend on the model I use?

A difference requires two or more groups. I cannot be diffrent from
myself. It does not have to be two groups; you can think of a linear
effect as a comparison of an infinite number of groups.

A difference also requires an idea of what is being compared, and the
decision depends on what interests you. You are probably very happy
about the fact that I am not in a position to decide for you what you
find interesting.

The model is only there to estimate what you want to estimate, so the
model is irrelevant at this stage. Your first step is to decide what
you want to estimate, and than look for or derive a model that does
what you want.

I'll repeat this one final time: You need to do this on your own. It
is not because I am mean(*) and don't want to help you, but this is a
question that can only be answered by you.

-- Maarten

(*) I might or might not be, I'll leave that to others to decide.

---------------------------------
Maarten L. Buis
WZB
Reichpietschufer 50
10785 Berlin
Germany

http://www.maartenbuis.nl
---------------------------------

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