panel data issues
by Sven Schreiber
Hello all panel-interested people,
while using gretl for teaching with panel data (which I hadn't done much
before) I noticed the following, let's say, interface nuisances compared
to the usual luxury gretl offers for time series:
1: The sample and/or range in the main window (bottom) are given as pure
index numbers, even if "panel data marker strings" (cf. user guide p.23)
are defined. At least for the time dimension it would be useful to show
the sample periods in a human-readable form (through the markers). Also,
I noticed that the period numbers shown do not always coincide with the
values of the "time" index variable, if subsampling is in effect. (Seen
in the CEL.gdt dataset after applying the sample restriction year>1970
for example.)
1b: A slightly more general suggestion, also for non-panel data: The
active sample restriction criterion could be shown next to the resulting
active sample in the main window. (At least for simple restrictions,
maybe not for complex, multiple ones.)
2: Menu Sample -> Set range: Only the group range can be chosen, not the
periods. Actually, given the often arbitrary ordering of groups, this is
really the less useful dimension to choose a contiguous range from. (I
know I can use "set sample based on criterion" for periods, but that's
not the point.)
3: About pshrink(): A version that returns a full panel series (with
repeated values like pmean() etc.) could be useful -- practical example:
in growth regressions one needs the initial value of output-per-worker
as a regressor. Also maybe it should be called "pfirst()" or something
instead.
4: Time-constant variables: I'm not sure how to create variables that
only vary along the cross-section, like it is done with the built-in
pmean() etc. functions. Or how to append them (like the user guide p.114
"adding a time series", but along the other panel dimension).
5: Constant in a fixed-effects regression: I don't understand what gretl
reports as the global constant term in a fixed-effects model, and it
doesn't seem to be defined in the guide. It's also confusing that gretl
complains if one wants to discard the constant in the specification
dialog (when fixed effects are selected). (But obviously gretl
estimates the right thing as the comparison with explicit LSDV
regression shows, just the constant is mysterious -- even if it's the
average of the fixed effects it's not clear where the standard errors
come from.)
6: Lags not showing in model spec dialog when sample is restricted to a
single period: If I restrict the CEL.gdt data with year==1985, I cannot
include any previously created lags (of y for example) in the
regression, because they don't show up in the variable selector. Because
the subsampled dataset is now treated as "undated", there's also no
"lags..." button in the dialog. -- Actually I don't understand why gretl
"temporarily forgets" the panel structure of the dataset when a single
period is active. It would seem less problematic to treat even a T=1
sample as a special case of panel data if the underlying dataset has a
panel structure; especially in conjunction with point 1 above about
showing the selected periods in the sample.
Ok, that was a long post, sorry, but still necessary I think.
Cheers,
Sven
11 years, 4 months
another release?
by Allin Cottrell
I'm wondering if people think it would be worth doing a fairly quick
release of gretl 1.9.14. The reason I ask is that two rather unpleasant
things have come up with 1.9.13:
* In the quartz build of gretl for OS X the bundled version of gnuplot did
not work properly in stand-alone mode. That is, if you selected "Gnuplot"
from the Tools menu gnuplot started OK but wouldn't plot anything and
couldn't find its help file.
* In the apparatus for building a gfn function package, the parsing of
"value labels" for integer function arguments was broken for the case
where these label strings contained spaces.
These things are now fixed in CVS and snapshots (along with a couple of
other relatively minor bugs). Maybe we should push out a release before
embarking on substantial new development in CVS?
(I might just mention: some bugs associated with printf/sprintf, reported
recently by Ignacio, were not present in 1.9.13, they were the result of
some post-release changes -- and they're now fixed.)
Allin
12 years
website translations
by Allin Cottrell
A message for those who maintain translations of the gretl website
material.
With the release of gretl 1.9.13 I have updated the pages for Windows and
OS X to reflect the availability of a 64-bit Windows version and a
gtk-quartz version for OS X. Please take a look at the following files in
CVS (under doc/website/template):
win32_pat.html (revised)
osx_pat.html (revised)
mac-intel_pat.html (revised)
mac-quartz_pat.html (newly added)
I'll keep an eye on CVS and ensure that updated translations get
published to sourceforge quickly.
Allin
12 years
'clear' on 1.9.13
by Sven Schreiber
Hi,
I get this funny message when I do 'clear --dataset' in a script on
1.9.13 (Windows):
"Sorry, the clear command is not yet implemented in libgretl"
This must be misleading, right?
thanks,
sven
12 years
Problems with freq and plot
by Artur T.
Hi all,
I currently use gretl from 2013-10-08 on Windows, but actually I experience
the same issue on current cvs under linux.
Out of the CLI "freq" displays both the text and the figure. But
<hansl>
freq X --show-plot
<\hansl>
within a script does not show-up the histogramm. I also tried
"--plot=display" but this does not seem to apply for freq at the moment.
Best,
Artur
12 years
Gretl Quartz on OS X Mavericks
by Berend Hasselman
I have updated my computers to OS X Mavericks.
Mac users and Allin will be pleased to hear that Gretl Quartz works like a charm on the latest incarnation of OS X.
I’ve done the usual fooling around with klein.inp. Displaying graphs also works.
All seems to work as expected.
But there is something wrong.
Starting a gnuplot from the menu works but as soon as you issue a plot command in gnuplot, gnuplot becomes unresponsive.
AquaTerm is launched but no plot in an Aquaterm window appears.
Issuing "help show” in gnuplot gives:
/Applications/Gretl.app/Contents/Resources/share/gnuplot/4.7/gnuplot.gih: No such file or directory
but in the startup message of gnuplot is says: Version 4.6 patchlevel 4 last modified 2013-10-06
I’m running gretl 1.9.14cvs (build date: 2013-10-26) on OS X 10.9.
Berend
12 years
Have you ever seen Doxygen for Gretl?
by Hélio Guilherme
Hi,
Continuing my experiments with my home server, I have now used Doxygen to
set the pages very helpful for developers better understanding gretl's code.
If the server is up, you find it here:
http://candy-house.no-ip.biz:8085/
If it is not up, just chat with me or call me at skype: helio_guilherme
There is also another project with Testlink. to have Requirements and Tests
definition and management: http://candy-house.no-ip.biz:8085/app/testlink/
The time zone of my server, is GMT, Lisbon, London.
Attached is a sample image from the Doxygen generated docs.
Hope it is useful,
Hélio
12 years
Gnuplot in Gretl Quartz
by Berend Hasselman
>From the menu Tools, Gnuplot of Gretl Quartz 1.9.13 I'm running Gnuplot.
It starts with the message "Unknown or ambiguous terminal name 'aqua'".
And issues the message "Terminal type set to 'unknown'".
The gnuplot command show term gives: terminal type is unknown.
I also tried plotting but no plots appear.
I used otool -L gnuplot to see if gnuplot is linked to Aquaterm (there is an Aquaterm and a libaquaterm.dylib embedded in the Gretl.app).
Apparently not.
But when I plot a something from within Gretl's main window I get a nice plot.
So what is Gretl asking gnuplot to do?
I've also made a gnuplot script and that also doesn't seem to plot anything.
What's going on?
Berend
BTW: window switching now working with no problems. Thanks a lot for this. Gretl quartz is a pleasure to use now and a lot faster in starting up than the X-version.
12 years
CVS version numbering
by Allin Cottrell
Up till now the work-in-progress CVS version of gretl has retained
the number of the previous release (so, for example, during the long
period in which 1.9.12 was the latest release, the CVS version was
1.9.12cvs).
We've now decided it makes more sense to bump the number up right
after release. So there will be no 1.9.13cvs, we're skipping to
1.9.14cvs; this is what will eventually become 1.9.14.
However, as I promised Ignacio we're now going to look into updating
from CVS to git, so there may be some further changes before long.
We'll keep you informed (and put up a git "cheat sheet" when we make
the move).
Allin
12 years
