st: generating a vector

[Kit Baum <baum@bc.edu>]

On May 20, 2006, at 1:07 AM, Gauri Khanna wrote:
> I would like to generate an 1 x n vector, (n=326 rows) for cross
> sectional data. This is actually an input price vector.
>
> I would then want to fill it with three or four input prices that I
> have computed elsewhere. Hence the same value for each of the
> inputs will be repeated 326 times.

I wonder whether Gauri really wants a vector in the first place. If  
this is cross-sectional data, and the intent is to do something like  
multiply an existing variable times an input price, that does not  
require a vector: it requires a scalar or, more clumsily, a variable.  
If you have a variable Hours and want to generate Wage*Hours, and  
wage is a constant, you could just

scalar wage = 12.50
gen wagebill = wage * Hours

or, less efficiently,

gen wage = 12.50
gen wagebill = wage * Hours

Wanting to use a vector sounds a bit like working in a matrix  
language (e.g. MATLAB or Gauss). Although Stata contains a full- 
featured matrix language, Mata, doing something like generating the  
product of factor input prices and quantities does not call for Mata;  
it can easily be done with Stata's scalars or variables.

Kit Baum, Boston College Economics
http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba1.html


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