nlcom and the Delta Method in Stata

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nlcom and the Delta Method in Stata 1

The delta method approximates the expectation of some function of a random variable by relying on a (truncated) Taylor series expansion. In plain words, that means that one can use the delta method to calculate confidence intervals and perform hypothesis tests on just about every linear or nonlinear transformation of a vector of parameter estimates. Stata’s procedure nlcom is a particularly versatile and powerful implementation of the delta method. If you can write down the formula of the transformation, nlcom will spit out the result. And that means that you can abuse Stata’s built in procedures to implement your own estimators.

ME at the Margins: Average Marginal Effects, Marginal Effects at the Mean, and margins in Stata

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ME at the Margins: Average Marginal Effects, Marginal Effects at the Mean, and margins in Stata 2

Stata’s margins command can be a bit confusing Stata’s margins is a postestimation command which does all sorts of amazing things. Margins is incredibly powerful, and the accompanying marginsplot command nearly always does just the right thing. Margins and marginsplot have almost singlehandedly changed the way people interpret the way model estimates (particularly estimates from…

More from the manosphere, Christian weirdos, more biopolitics, and why Middle England should care about the climate crisis: four links I liked

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More from the manosphere, Christian weirdos, more biopolitics, and why Middle England should care about the climate crisis: four links I liked 5

I read this the way it was intended: with gory fascination. It’s almost as if capitalism was part of the problem. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/25/nick-wanted-to-drop-bodyfat-and-build-his-own-micro-harem-of-women-how-my-friend-fell-for-the-red-pill-hucksters-of-the-manosphere Interesting that there is now a book about this. Even more interesting that this should be the only book. Blaming America’s religious beginnings for America ‘s weirdness has been a reasonably popular folk…

May is the new April: the Spring 2025 update of the radical right bibliography

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May is the new April: the Spring 2025 update of the radical right bibliography 7

Life is full of unforeseen, yet entirely predictable obstacles: over-committing, over-optimism, and yes, occasionally, over-indulgence. As a result, this year’s spring edition of the Eclectic, Erratic Bibliography on the Extreme Right (in (Western) Europe)™ is late, but here it comes. With 180 new titles, this is the second-biggest update ever, which just goes to show…

What should we expect from Germany’s incoming not-so-grand coalition?

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Not too much, probably. Still, I talked at length with Linda Mannheim about the fallout from the latest German election. Here is the result. In other news, I love it when journalists ask me to keep in mind that they are writing for an American audience. https://www.thenation.com/article/world/germany-grand-coalition-government

Behold a 1970s social networking site

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An old sign asking users of public pay phones to keep their conversations brief

This, my young friends, is a (West German) coin-operated payphone. Like cigarette and bubble gum vending machines, they were ubiquitous during my youth. Now, this is literally a museum piece, which I spotted in Frankfurt a couple of days ago. Very rarely, people forgot to collect the coins that remained when they ended their call.…