Using Stata for Quantitative Analysis

by Kyle C. Longest

• ISBN13: 9781412997119
• ISBN10: 1412997119
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-12-07
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc

Summary

ááááUsing Stata for Statistical Analysis is a supplemental text for undergraduate and graduate level courses involving research methods and statistical analysis. The manual will be written so thatáaáwide variety of fields that offer such courses would be able to adopt it.áInstructors most likely to adopt would include sociology, political science, economics, and psychology. These fields share a relatively similar approach to quantitative analysis and are all part of the trend towards using Stata as their primary statistical program.ááááááááLongest proposes to teach the language of Stata from an intuitive perspective, furthering studentsà overall retention, allowing for a student with no experience in statistical software to be able toásit down and be working with data in a very short amount of time.Features and Benefitsáááá-Stata screen shots provided throughout chapters to aid student comprehensionáááá-Examples of commands and procedures using real data from the General Social Survey will be provided.áááá-'A Closer Look' boxes (similar to Frankfort-Nachmias) will provide additional information on more ááá advanced topics.áááá-Self-teaching style will allow novice Stata users ability to complete a basic quantitative research ááá project from start to finish.áááá- Exercises at ends of chapters will have answers provided to help students master Stata

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Motivation and Purpose	p. ix
About the National Study of Youth and Religion	p. x
A Note on Versions	p. xi
A Note on Notation	p. xi
References	p. xii
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Foundations for Working with Stata	p. 1
Getting to Know Stata 12	p. 2
What You See	p. 2
Getting Started With Data Files	p. 5
Opening and Saving Stata Data Files	p. 5
Data Browser and Editor	p. 7
Entering Your Own Data	p. 10
Using Different Types of Data Files in Stata	p. 10
Types of Variables in Data Files	p. 13
Exercises	p. 16
The Essentials	p. 17
Intuition and Stata Commands	p. 17
The Structure of Stata Commands	p. 19
Command	p. 20
Variables	p. 20
if Statements	p. 20
Options	p. 21
Executing a Command Using the Command Window	p. 21
The 5 Essential Commands	p. 21
tabulate	p. 22
summary	p. 28
generate	p. 29
replace (if)	p. 35
recode	p. 43
Nonessential, Everyday Commands	p. 48
rename	p. 48
drop/keep (if)	p. 48
describe	p. 50
display	p. 51
set more off	p. 52
Summary of Commands Used in This Chapter	p. 52
Exercises	p. 54
Do Files and Data Management	p. 55
What Is a Do File?	p. 56
Opening and Saving Do Files	p. 57
Translation From the Command Window	p. 58
Getting the Most Out of Do Files	p. 66
Data Management	p. 69
Working With Labels	p. 69
Missing Data	p. 74
Using String Variables	p. 80
Saving Results	p. 83
Summary of Commands Used in This Chapter	p. 86
Exercises	p. 87
Quantitative Analysis with Stata	p. 89
Descriptive Statistics	p. 90
Frequency Distributions	p. 91
Histograms, Bar Graphs, and Pie Charts	p. 97
Measures of Central Tendency and Variability	p. 102
Box Plots	p. 107
Summary of Commands Used in This Chapter	p. 110
Exercises	p. 111
Relationships Between Nominal and Ordinal Variables	p. 113
Cross-Tabulations	p. 113
Chi-Square Test	p. 122
Measures of Association	p. 124
Elaboration	p. 126
Multivariate Bar Graphs	p. 130
Summary of Commands Used in This Chapter	p. 134
Exercises	p. 135
Relationships Between Different Measurement Levels	p. 137
Testing Means	p. 138
Confidence Intervals	p. 139
Testing a Specific Value (One-Sample t Test)	p. 140
Testing the Mean of Two Groups (Independent-Samples t Test)	p. 141
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)	p. 144
Summary of Commands Used in This Chapter	p. 146
Exercises	p. 147
Relationships Between Interval-Ratio Variables	p. 148
Correlation	p. 148
Scatterplots	p. 150
Linear Regression	p. 156
Multiple Linear Regression	p. 160
Dichotomous (Dummy) Variables and Linear Regression	p. 162
Summary of Commands Used in This Chapter	p. 165
Exercises	p. 166
Enhancing Your Command Repertoire	p. 167
Stata Help Files	p. 167
Ways to Search and Access	p. 168
Structure and Language	p. 171
Advanced Convenience Commands	p. 175
tab, gen(newvar)	p. 175
egen	p. 178
mark and markout	p. 181
alpha, gen(newvar)	p. 183
Summary of Commands Used in This Chapter	p. 185
Exercises	p. 185
Appendix: Getting to Know Stata 11	p. 187
Chapter Exercise Solutions	p. 201
"How To" Index	p. 221
About the Author	p. 225
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