Re: st: output conventions

[Maarten buis <maartenbuis@yahoo.co.uk>]

--- On Mon, 14/6/10, Tim wrote:
> My specific problem today is what does / in front of a
> parameter identifier mean? For example, boxcox output has
> estimates for "/theta". What does the / mean?

That typically means that Stata maximized a transformation 
of that parameter (say ln[theta]), and for ease of 
interpretation backtransformed that parameter. The reason
for maximizing with respect to a transformation of a 
parameter is that this way you ensure that the parameter
takes only certain values, in the example only strictly
positive numbers.

> I'm asking the more general question (where is this
> documented) so I don't have to ask again next time I come
> across an output symbol I don't understand.

Good question, but I don't know. I guess I learned this 
particular point relatively early in my Stata career. I
was introduced to Stata while during a survival analysis
course, and this conventions is much used in those models
as well, so I guess it was explained to me, and so I never
had to look it up.

Hope this helps,
Maarten  

--------------------------
Maarten L. Buis
Institut fuer Soziologie
Universitaet Tuebingen
Wilhelmstrasse 36
72074 Tuebingen
Germany

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


      

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