Tom Pepinsky

Category: Research

  • This Just In

    This is a post dedicated to newspapers, a frustrating kind and a very inspiring kind.

    Nothing is more frustrating than the print media here.  Well, that’s not really true, but they are really frustrating.  I (TP) have been going through back issues of Utusan Malaysia, which is either the widest or second-widest circulation Malay-language daily in Malaysia.  (The other one is Berita Harian, which I will do next.)  The fact that it is currently only available on microfilm is just generally frustrating, because microform makes me squint and I hate the punctuated *whirrr* of the machine as I slowly go through issues.    But it’s much more frustrating because the content is terrible, just really really bad reporting.  The articles that I am reading are from must before the crisis started, so we still have Mahathir and Anwar on the same side, and the economy seems to be booming, so everyone is happy and the government can do no wrong.

    Have you ever seen the episode of the Simpsons where Homer starts eating Powersauce Bars, and he thinks that he can climb mountains, and his mountain climbing exports are covered by a Powersauce-sponsored news program, which has news reports like "This just in!  Powersauce is awesome!"?  It’s like that.  "Deputy PM Says UMNO Is Better Than Other Parties".  "Malaysian Companies Are World Class".  "Tiny Malaysian State The Size of Connecticut To Get Second International Airport".  "PM Says Corruption Is Bad For Economy".  "Opposition Candidates Looking Out For Personal Interests".

    The other newspaper story is inspiring, and it comes to us from the Washington Post and is available online here.  It is a story of my cousin Margy (first cousin once removed?) and her movie night.  You should go read it.  When you’re done, you should browse over to the ALS Association and give a donation to fund some research.  If you’re from the US, you should also lobby your representatives to give full government funding to research that could help us understand the causes and possible cures for ALS, even if that research involves stem cells.

    Margy, when they put you back to work, you can help me read these damn newspapers.

  • Geek-a-licious Statistics

    This is something that may interest precisely zero members of our reading audience.  As it is, it only really interests 50% of the authors.

    When you learn econometrics or other types of statistics as a graduate student, you normally end up having one of two things happen to you.  In the one instance, you learn one software package very well to fit the types of research questions that you like to ask.  In the other instance, you learn a whole bunch of software packages to reflect the fact that you have eclectic research interests.  The problem, as you might imagine, is that some statistical packages are extremely good at doing some things, but almost none are good at doing everything.  I (TP) have encounted this problem often.  If I want to study time series cross sectional data, Stata is the way to go.  For survey data, SPSS is king.  But one at least one occasion I have been faced with a problem of generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH), which is almost impossible without a software package normally used for financial analysis called EViews.  I have to learn to use all of them.  It is not unheard of for people to tailor their research to the types of questions that their preferred statistical software can answer.

    None of this would be a real problem if statistical software were free or easy to learn to use.  But neither of those are true.  Which is why it is particularly unfortunate that no one in my graduate education encouraged me to learn R.  After four years, I have finally decided to make the switch to R, which is not only extremely powerful, but FREE.  It also, like good open-source software, does not take up much hard drive space.  It’s a little challenging to learn at first, mainly because it is command oriented (unlike other programs that spoil you with fancy pull down menus).  But it is no harder to use than the other very powerful command oriented statistical program, Gauss, which I had to learn, and which is quite expensive if you want the version that handles lots of data.

    And also, as is the case for other open-source software, there is a huge community of R users who write libraries for all sorts of estimators and problems.  It took me 2 seconds to find a GARCH library that is just as easy to use as EViews.  When I am a professor, my students will be contributing to the revolution by using R.  If you are one of our readers who struggles with econometrics software–and I know that you are out there–may I strongly urge you to look into R.  Imagine, never having to pay for stats software again.

    (Shhh, but it also has the added benefit of making you look smarter simply because you use it.  Using Gauss does the same, but R is free.  This much like composing your papers in LaTeX instead of Microsoft Word, which I am almost positive increases your chances of publication.)