chks

User-written Stata command to estimate non-linear (index) and Zero-Inefficiency Stochastic Frontier Models. This code is a beta version and it’s been developed for a paper in progress.

Getting Started

  1. Install. You can choose from one of the following two methods to install:

    • From the Stata command window:

      net install chks, from(https://luischanci.github.io/chks/) replace

    • Manual installation: Download, unzip, and locate all the files into the Stata ado folder (for instance, locate the unzipped ado and other files into C:\ado\personal\c\).

  2. Syntaxis.

    The general syntaxis is,

    chks depvariable xregressors, indx(indexvariables) type() estimation() eoption() maxitera() nonconstant robust

    where,

    • indx(). varlist for the index. indx() could be empty, which means that the model is linear rather than a nonlinear index.

    • type(). Functional form for the nonlinear index. There are two types: CES type(ces) and Cobb-Douglas type(cd).

    • estimation(). Estimation method: NLS estimation(nls), Stochastic Frontier estimation(sf), or Zero-Stochastic Frontier estimation(zsf).

    • eoption(): is the estimation option when estimation is ZSF. It could be Maximum Likelihood Estimation eoption(ml) or Expectation-Maximization Algorithm eoption(em). EM is the default option.

    • maxitera() specifies the maximum number of iterations; the default is 500.

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Model Specification

The general model is like,

$$ log(\eta)_i=x_i\beta’+\epsilon_i $$

where, $\eta$ is a nonlinear index and $x_{i}$ is a vector of explanatory variables.

To ilustrate, $\eta$ in a CES specifiction would be like,

$$ \eta=\left(\sum_{m=1}^M{\delta_mY_m^\rho}\right)^{1/\rho} $$

thus, the model to estimate becomes,

$$ log(Y_1)_i=-(1/\rho)*log\left(1+\sum_r^{M-1}{\delta_r (C_r^{\rho}-1)}\right)+x_i\beta’+\epsilon_i $$

with, $C_r=(Y_r/Y_1)$, and $r\neq1$.

$$,$$

Using the code.

  • Estimation NLS. Let’s say that $M=3$ and there are $k$ regressors,

    chks Y1 x1 x2 ... xk, indx(Y2 Y3) t(ces) es(nls)

    Notes: If indx() is nonempty, variables Y1,...,Ym should be in levels.

  • On the other hand, if the residual is such that $\epsilon_i=v_i-u_i$ with, $v_i\sim\mathcal{N}(0,\sigma^2_v)$ and $u_i\sim\mathcal{N}^+(0,\sigma^2_u)$, which is bascally a Nonlinear Stochastic Frontier Model, the command for estimation would be:

    chks Y1 x1 x2 ... xk, indx(Y2 Y3) t(ces) es(sf)

  • Furthermore, if there is a probability that some $u_i=0$, known as Zero-Inefficiency Stochastic Frontier model (see Kumbhakar, Parmeter and Tsionas, 2013, “A zero inefficiency stochastic frontier model”, in Journal of Econometrics , 172(1), 66-76), the command would be:

    chks Y1 x1 x2 ...xk, indx(Y2 Y3) t(ces) es(zsf)

    In this case there are two additional options for the estimation method: Maximum Likelihood Extimation (add eo(ml)) or Expectation-Maximization Algorithm (add eo(em)).

Final comments. Other specifications are: a Cobb-Douglas index or linear functions. For instance, a version of a linear Zero-Inefficiency Stochastic Frontier model would be:

$$y_i=x_i\beta’+\epsilon_i$$

with $\epsilon_i=v_i-u_i$, and $v_i\sim\mathcal{N}(0,\sigma^2_v)$ and $u_i\sim\mathcal{N}^+(0,\sigma^2_u)$. In this case, the command would be:

chks y1 x1 x2, es(zsf)

Finally, it is possible to report the robust standard errors (add robust) or omit the constant term (add nocons).

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Examples.

  • Example 1: A Linear Z-SF.

    Data (simulation). To illustrate the use of the command, I am going to use a simulation proposed by Diego Restrepo (of course, any mistake would be my responsability). The code for a cost function would be,

    clear all
    set obs 1000
    gen x = rnormal()/10
    gen v = rnormal()/10
    gen z = rnormal()
    gentrun double u, left(0)     /* Need module GENTRUN */
    replace u = u/10              /* u ~ Truncated-left N(0,0.1)*/
    replace u = 0 if _n > _N-_N/2 /* For a  p=50%, u=0, no inefficiency*/
    gen 	  e = v - u			  /* For production function (not cost)*/
    gen 	  y = 1 + x + e
    

    Command: chks y x, es(zsf) for EM-algorithm and chks y x, es(zsf) eo(ml) for MLE.

    Results using MLE:

    . chks y x, es(zsf) eo(ml)
    Zero Stochastic Frontier for linear models
    (ZSF, linear model)
    .
    .
    .
    Iteration 12:  f(p) =  715.46477
    Iteration 13:  f(p) =  715.46477
     (Zero) Stochastic Frontier, linear model. M.L.E.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                    y |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
    ------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
                    x |   1.020781   .0376483    27.11   0.000     .9469912     1.09457
                _cons |   .9688054   .0050194   193.01   0.000     .9589675    .9786434
            lnsigma_u |  -1.677142   .3815109    -4.40   0.000    -2.424889   -.9293944
            lnsigma_v |  -2.170457   .0289882   -74.87   0.000    -2.227272   -2.113641
    logist_probabil~y |   3.404257   1.090584     3.12   0.002     1.266751    5.541763
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    

    Results using EM-algorithm:

    . chks y x, es(zsf)
    Zero Stochastic Frontier for linear models
    (ZSF, linear model)
    .
    .
    .
    (Zero) Stochastic Frontier, linear model. EM-Algorithm.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                   	y |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
    ------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
                   	x |   1.021142   .0367627    27.78   0.000     .9490882    1.093195
               	_cons |   .9699379   .0036587   265.10   0.000     .9627669    .9771089
           	lnsigma_u |  -1.775768   .1535916   -11.56   0.000    -2.076802   -1.474734
           	lnsigma_v |  -2.175327   .0227074   -95.80   0.000    -2.219833   -2.130821
    logist_probabil~y |    3.07854   .1541839    19.97   0.000     2.776345    3.380734
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    

$$,$$

  • Example 2: Nonlinear index.

    Estimation using NLS

    ```
    use https://luischanci.github.io/chks/chksdata1, clear
    chks Y1 x1 x2, indx(Y2 Y3) es(nls) t(ces) r
    
    Iteration 16:  f(p) =  12.058803
      -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      			  Y1 |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
      -----------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
      			  x1 |   .0158278   .0006196    25.54   0.000     .0146134    .0170422
      			  x2 |   .0401204   .0008423    47.63   0.000     .0384695    .0417712
      			_cons|   2.894777   .0180462   160.41   0.000     2.859407    2.930146
      			  Y2 |    .225702    .012979    17.39   0.000     .2002636    .2511403
      			  Y3 |   .5136438   .0136537    37.62   0.000     .4868831    .5404046
      			 rho |   2.301384   .1146792    20.07   0.000     2.076617    2.526151
      -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ```
    

    In this particular example, in which there is a nonlinear function without additional especifications in the residual term, a similar result could be obtained by using NLS in Stata:

    ```
    g  ly1 = ln(Y1)
    g  ry2 = Y2/Y1
    g  ry3 = Y3/Y1
    
        nl (ly1 = -(1/{rho = 0.5})*ln( 1 + 			 		///
      					  {delta2 = 0.3}*(ry2^{rho}-1) +  ///
      					  {delta3 = 0.3}*(ry3^{rho}-1) )  ///
      					  + ({b0}+{b1}*x1+{b2}*x2) ), r
    
    Iteration 6:  residual SS =   12.0588
    Iteration 7:  residual SS =   12.0588
    
    
    Nonlinear regression                                Number of obs =      1,000
      										          R-squared     =     0.9839
      												  Adj R-squared =     0.9838
      												  Root MSE      =   .1101435
      												  Res. dev.     =  -1580.083
    
      -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      				 |               Robust
      			 ly1 |      Coef.   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
      -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      		  	/rho |   2.301383   .1085109    21.21   0.000     2.088447     2.51432
      		 /delta2 |    .225702   .0124839    18.08   0.000     .2012041    .2501999
      		 /delta3 |   .5136438   .0134125    38.30   0.000     .4873237    .5399639
      			 /b0 |   2.894777   .0180631   160.26   0.000      2.85933    2.930223
      			 /b1 |   .0158278   .0006212    25.48   0.000     .0146087    .0170469
      			 /b2 |   .0401204   .0008432    47.58   0.000     .0384657     .041775
      -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Parameter b0 taken as constant term in model
    ```
    
  • Example 3: Non-linear (Index) Stochastic Frontier.

    ks Y1 x1 x2, indx(Y2 Y3) es(sf) t(ces) r
     Iteration 34:  f(p) =  793.27611
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     |   .0155817   .0006264    24.87   0.000      .014354    .0168095
     |   .0392952   .0009681    40.59   0.000     .0373978    .0411925
    ons |   2.993987   .0264685   113.11   0.000      2.94211    3.045865
     |   .2249359   .0125398    17.94   0.000     .2003583    .2495134
     |   .5125146   .0132849    38.58   0.000     .4864766    .5385526
    o|   2.296911   .1106526    20.76   0.000     2.080036    2.513786
    sigma_u |  -2.206232   .1435049   -15.37   0.000    -2.487496   -1.924967
    sigma_v |  -2.435302   .0812527   -29.97   0.000    -2.594555    -2.27605
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
  • Example 4: Non-linear (Index). Zero Stochastic Frontier.

    chks Y1 x1 x2, indx(Y2 Y3) t(ces) es(zsf) eo(em)

      ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      		Y1 |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
      ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      		x1 |   .0155953   .0005609    27.81   0.000      .014496    .0166946
      		x2 |   .0392709   .0007659    51.27   0.000     .0377697    .0407721
      	     _cons |   2.935441   .0167206   175.56   0.000     2.902669    2.968213
        		Y2 |   .2252023   .0124254    18.12   0.000     .2008489    .2495557
        		Y3 |   .5117927   .0132434    38.65   0.000     .4858362    .5377493
       		rho|   2.293806   .1025533    22.37   0.000     2.092805    2.494807
      	 lnsigma_u |  -2.299401   .0789157   -29.14   0.000    -2.454073   -2.144729
      	 lnsigma_v |  -2.340403   .0252419   -92.72   0.000    -2.389876    -2.29093
    	logist_probability |   .5607503   .0657478     8.53   0.000     .4318871    .6896136
      ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    di 1/(1+exp(-.5607503))
    0.63662613
    



Final notes:

  • It’s a draft (2019). Please provide me with any comments you may have on bugs, wording, inconsistencies, etc.
  • All files available here are for education and/or research purposes ONLY. The code within this repository comes with no guarantee, the use of this code is your responsibility.
  • Github: Repository
Luis Chancí
Luis Chancí
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