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introduction to xtsum

Joao Claudio Macosso

2023-12-07

Introduction

xtsum is an R wrapper based on STATA xtsum command, it used to provide summary statistics for a panel data set. It decomposes the variable \(x_{it}\) into a between \((\bar{x_i})\) and within \((x_{it} − \bar{x_i} + \bar{\bar{x}})\), the global mean x being added back in make results comparable, see (StataCorp 2023).

Installation

install.packages("xtsum")

# For dev version
# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("macosso/xtsum")

Getting Started

# Load the librarry
library(xtsum)

xtsum

This function computes summary statistics for panel data, including overall statistics, between-group statistics, and within-group statistics.

Usage

xtsum(
  data,
  variables = NULL,
  id = NULL,
  t = NULL,
  na.rm = FALSE,
  return.data.frame = TRUE,
  dec = 3
)

Arguments

Example

Genral example

Based on National Longitudinal Survey of Young Women, 14-24 years old in 1968

data("nlswork", package = "sampleSelection")
xtsum(nlswork, "hours", id = "idcode", t = "year", na.rm = T, dec = 6)
Variable Dim Mean SD Min Max Observations
___________ _________
hours overall 36.55956 9.869623 1 168 N = 28467
between 7.846585 1 83.5 n = 4710
within 7.520712 -2.154726 130.05956 T = 6.043949

The table above can be interpreted as below paraphrased from (StataCorp 2023).

The overall and within are calculated over N = 28,467 person-years of data. The between is calculated over n = 4,710 persons, and the average number of years a person was observed in the hours data isT = 6.

xtsum also reports standard deviation(SD), minimums(Min), and maximums(Max).

Hours worked varied between Overal Min = 1 and Overall Max = 168. Average hours worked for each woman varied between between Min = 1 and between Max = 83.5. “Hours worked within” varied between within Min = −2.15 and within Max = 130.1, which is not to say that any woman actually worked negative hours. The within number refers to the deviation from each individual’s average, and naturally, some of those deviations must be negative. Then the negative value is not disturbing but the positive value is. Did some woman really deviate from her average by +130.1 hours? No. In our definition of within, we add back in the global average of 36.6 hours. Some woman did deviate from her average by 130.1 − 36.6 = 93.5 hours, which is still large.

The reported standard deviations tell us that the variation in hours worked last week across women is nearly equal to that observed within a woman over time. That is, if you were to draw two women randomly from our data, the difference in hours worked is expected to be nearly equal to the difference for the same woman in two randomly selected years.

More detailed interpretation can be found in handout(Porter n.d.)

Using pdata.frame object

data("Gasoline", package = "plm")
Gas <- pdata.frame(Gasoline, index = c("country", "year"), drop.index = TRUE)
xtsum(Gas)
Variable Dim Mean SD Min Max Observations
___________ _________
lgaspcar overall 4.296 0.549 3.38 6.157 N = 342
between 0.515 3.73 5.766 n = 18
within 0.224 3.545 5.592 T = 19
___________ _________
lincomep overall -6.139 0.635 -8.073 -5.221 N = 342
between 0.609 -7.816 -5.449 n = 18
within 0.225 -6.877 -5.6 T = 19
___________ _________
lrpmg overall -0.523 0.678 -2.896 1.125 N = 342
between 0.684 -2.709 0.739 n = 18
within 0.127 -1.057 -0.137 T = 19
___________ _________
lcarpcap overall -9.042 1.219 -13.475 -7.536 N = 342
between 1.114 -12.459 -7.781 n = 18
within 0.557 -11.332 -7.691 T = 19

Using regular data.frame with id and t specified

data("Crime", package = "plm")
xtsum(Crime, variables = c("polpc", "avgsen", "crmrte"), id = "county", t = "year")
Variable Dim Mean SD Min Max Observations
___________ _________
polpc overall 0.002 0.003 0 0.036 N = 630
between 0.002 0.001 0.016 n = 90
within 0.002 -0.013 0.022 T = 7
___________ _________
avgsen overall 8.955 2.658 4.22 25.83 N = 630
between 1.498 6.277 14.581 n = 90
within 2.201 1.313 20.203 T = 7
___________ _________
crmrte overall 0.032 0.018 0.002 0.164 N = 630
between 0.017 0.004 0.089 n = 90
within 0.007 -0.011 0.126 T = 7

Specifying variables to include in the summary

xtsum(Gas, variables = c("lincomep", "lgaspcar"))
Variable Dim Mean SD Min Max Observations
___________ _________
lincomep overall -6.139 0.635 -8.073 -5.221 N = 342
between 0.609 -7.816 -5.449 n = 18
within 0.225 -6.877 -5.6 T = 19
___________ _________
lgaspcar overall 4.296 0.549 3.38 6.157 N = 342
between 0.515 3.73 5.766 n = 18
within 0.224 3.545 5.592 T = 19

Returning a data.frame object

Returning a data.frame might be useful if one wishes to perform additional manipulation with the data or if you intend to use other rporting packages such as stargazer (Hlavac 2018) or kabel(Zhu 2021).

xtsum(Gas, variables = c("lincomep", "lgaspcar"), return.data.frame = TRUE)
#> # A tibble: 8 × 7
#>   Variable    Dim       Mean   SD    Min    Max    Observations
#>   <chr>       <chr>     <chr>  <chr> <chr>  <chr>  <chr>       
#> 1 ___________ _________ <NA>   <NA>  <NA>   <NA>   <NA>        
#> 2 lincomep    overall   -6.139 0.635 -8.073 -5.221 N = 342     
#> 3 <NA>        between   <NA>   0.609 -7.816 -5.449 n = 18      
#> 4 <NA>        within    <NA>   0.225 -6.877 -5.6   T = 19      
#> 5 ___________ _________ <NA>   <NA>  <NA>   <NA>   <NA>        
#> 6 lgaspcar    overall   4.296  0.549 3.38   6.157  N = 342     
#> 7 <NA>        between   <NA>   0.515 3.73   5.766  n = 18      
#> 8 <NA>        within    <NA>   0.224 3.545  5.592  T = 19

Other Functions

The functions below can serve as a helper when the user is not interested in a full report but rather check a specific value.

between_max

This function computes the maximum between-group in a panel data.

Usage

between_max(data, variable, id = NULL, t = NULL, na.rm = FALSE)

Arguments * data: A data.frame or pdata.frame object containing the panel data.

Example

Using pdata.frame

data("Gasoline", package = "plm")
Gas <- pdata.frame(Gasoline, index = c("country", "year"), drop.index = TRUE)
between_max(Gas, variable = "lgaspcar")
#> [1] 5.766355

Using regular data.frame with id and t specified

data("Crime", package = "plm")
between_max(Crime, variable = "crmrte", id = "county", t = "year")
#> [1] 0.08868547

between_min

This function computes the minimum between-group of a panel data.

Usage between_min(data, variable, id = NULL, t = NULL, na.rm = FALSE)

Arguments

Value The minimum between-group effect.

Example

Using pdata.frame

data("Gasoline", package = "plm")
Gas <- pdata.frame(Gasoline, index = c("country", "year"), drop.index = TRUE)
between_min(Gas, variable = "lgaspcar")
#> [1] 3.729646

Using regular data.frame with id and t specified

data("Crime", package = "plm")
between_min(Crime, variable = "crmrte", id = "county", t = "year")
#> [1] 0.003969886

between_sd

This function calculates the standard deviation of between-group in a panel data.

Usage

between_sd(data, variable, id = NULL, t = NULL, na.rm = FALSE)

Arguments

Value The standard deviation of between-group effects.

Examples

using pdata.frame

data("Gasoline", package = "plm")
Gas <- pdata.frame(Gasoline, index = c("country", "year"), drop.index = TRUE)
between_sd(Gas, variable = "lgaspcar")
#> [1] 0.5150439

Using regular data.frame with id and t specified

data("Crime", package = "plm")
between_sd(Crime, variable = "crmrte", id = "county", t = "year")
#> [1] 0.01698929

within_max

This function computes the maximum within-group for a panel data.

Usage

within_max(data, variable, id = NULL, t = NULL, na.rm = FALSE)

Arguments

Value The maximum within-group effect.

Example

Using pdata.frame

data("Gasoline", package = "plm")
Gas <- pdata.frame(Gasoline, index = c("country", "year"), drop.index = TRUE)
within_max(Gas, variable = "lgaspcar")
#> [1] 5.591887

Using regular data.frame with id and t specified

data("Crime", package = "plm")
within_max(Crime, variable = "crmrte", id = "county", t = "year")
#> [1] 0.1258057

within_min

This function computes the minimum within-group for a panel data.

Usage

within_min(data, variable, id = NULL, t = NULL, na.rm = FALSE)

Arguments

Value The minimum within-group effect.

Example

Using pdata.frame

data("Gasoline", package = "plm")
Gas <- pdata.frame(Gasoline, index = c("country", "year"), drop.index = TRUE)
within_min(Gas, variable = "lgaspcar")
#> [1] 3.545347

Using regular data.frame with id and t specified

data("Crime", package = "plm")
within_min(Crime, variable = "crmrte", id = "county", t = "year")
#> [1] -0.01128364

within_sd

This function computes the standard deviation of within-group for a panel data.

Usage

within_sd(data, variable, id = NULL, t = NULL, na.rm = FALSE)

Arguments

Value The standard deviation of within-group effects.

Example

Using pdata.frame

data("Gasoline", package = "plm")
Gas <- pdata.frame(Gasoline, index = c("country", "year"), drop.index = TRUE)
within_sd(Gas, variable = "lgaspcar")
#> [1] 0.2236768

Using regular data.frame with id and t specified

data("Crime", package = "plm")
within_sd(Crime, variable = "crmrte", id = "county", t = "year")
#> [1] 0.006517892

References

Hlavac, Marek. 2018. “Stargazer.” CRAN.R-project.org. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=stargazer.
Porter, Stephen. n.d. Understanding Xtsum Output. stephenporter.org. Accessed December 6, 2023. https://stephenporter.org/files/xtsum_handout.pdf.
StataCorp. 2023. “STATA LONGITUDINALDATA/PANELDATA REFERENCEMANUAL RELEASE 18.” A Stata Press Publication.
Zhu, Hao. 2021. “kableExtra.” CRAN.R-project.org. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=kableExtra.

These binaries (installable software) and packages are in development.
They may not be fully stable and should be used with caution. We make no claims about them.