Simulations in Stata

[@Rezayyyyyyyyy]

Thanks for the video especially the parallel processing command. I have two questions. 1: isn't better to simulate the standard errors separately instead of calculating them from the simulated beta estimates? They might not be always identical. 2: How to store whether an SEM model converged or not when simulating? I am currently (probably) using a sub-optimal way to do this. I am currently simulating the RMSEA and Chi-square to see if they are missing and also checking whether standard errors are missing. Is there any way to directly store the convergence error in the simulations' files as a separate variable?

[@mronkko]

1) I do not understand the first question. SEs are calculated based on the simulated datasets. 2) You can get convergence status from e(converged). For example. run webuse census13 sem (

[@Rezayyyyyyyyy]

@@mronkkoThanks. I meant that instead of getting the standard deviation of estimates by the command summarize, we directly simulate the standard error for beta from each sample and store them. That is instead of (simulate _b) and using the summarize command to get the standard deviation of bs, we directly simulate the standard errors for each sample (simulate _b _se). Do they differ?

[@mronkko]

@@Rezayyyyyyyyy It depends on what you want to study with the Monte Carlo simulation. If you want to study the precision of estimate, you look at the SD of the estimates and ignored the SEs. If you want to study whether the SEs are unbiased, you store the SEs and compare the average SE against the SD of the estimates.

[@AngusB-o9x]

Is this a microsimulations approach? I require to use microsimulations method for a labour economics/migration project so would this video be applicable to that as well?

[@mronkko]

I have never heard the term microsimulations, so the answer is probably no.

[@AngusB-o9x]

@@mronkkoso could I produce a counter factual dataset to a regression from your approach or not?

[@mronkko]

@@AngusB-o9x I guess you could, but it really depends on what specifically you mean by that. The video is generally about simulating datasets, not simulating any specific kind of data.

[@AngusB-o9x]

@@mronkkoI note in the economic literature there is a micro simulation method used. I intend to use the British Labour market survey to evaluate the impact of immigration on inequality. Would it be possible to simulate this counter factual dataset using the method you discuss? Unless you have any other suggestion?

[@mronkko]

@@AngusB-o9x I discuss how to simulate data generally. Consider an analogy: you want to become a novelist. This video would explain you what alphabets are, but not really how you apply them together to form sentences that form a story. I do discuss simulating counterfactuals in a couple of different videos on mediation and if I remember correctly the show code examples too. But I am not sure if that is applicable to your context.

[@laxmanpokhrel5153]

Thank you Professor for wonderful video! It would be even better if you prepare video from your paper of simulation! It will be productive for us!

[@mronkko]

Here you go: osf.io/mjzyw I actually recorded these screencasts specifically for that paper. I will link it to the video description after it is published. (Or if it is published)

[@alinik4737]

Thank you Mikko!

[@mronkko]

You are welcome!