
Stata: One Program for Many Disciplines
Now those times are gone and interdisciplinary research is highly recognised as a means to achieving successful and rich research outputs (HEFCE, 2015). This is reflected in the number of research centres that continue to release funding opportunities with a particular attention on interdisciplinary outputs within and across disciplines. To mention some examples: The National Science Foundation (NSF), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy (CREATe), or the European Union (EU) research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. These funding opportunities and the final recognition of interdisciplinary research in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF), which is so important to rank the research quality of UK institutions, have clearly increased collaboration across disciplines, not just in the academic environment but also in other institutions such as hospitals or government centres (Graph 1). In general, European countries have the highest percentage of international collaborative publications (HEFCE, 2015).
A world with interdisciplinary collaboration may look easy and simple, but this is far from reality. Combining disciplines is risky and difficult. How can, for example, health researchers and economists work together? How can they understand one another when talking about numbers or diseases? For this understanding to happen they need a common instrument to work with, an easy and friendly tool that both disciplines can interpret, and one which can combine, in this example, disease information and data to draw conclusions in a manageable yet sophisticated format at the same time, and so satisfy both sides.
One key breakthrough has been the development of statistical software and tools such as Stata, Eviews and GAUSS, to name but a few, which in recent years have enabled statisticians, economists and mathematicians to translate and present their work in a way which is understandable and useful for researchers in other disciplines. Such tools have been developed to the stage that they can be accessible enough and easy enough to learn that researchers and professionals without advanced statistical training can learn to use them with relatively little training, as a useful complement to their existing research tools.
Research papers such as: Archer and Lemeshow, 2006; Norton et al., 2004; or Ho and Pennington-Cross, 2006 have shown that Stata is currently the most popular of such tools, and for many researchers acts as a language which different disciplines in effect use to communicate with each other (many more articles can be found as examples). Stata emerged in 1985 and since then has cemented its place in the market as a fast, accurate, and user-friendly statistical package which covers the necessities of a wide range of disciplines. From the simplest statistical analysis and graphs, to the most advanced econometric analysis, Stata is widely use in the areas of economics, political science, sociology, health, finance, etc. (http://www.stata.com).
Tools like Stata have contributed to a major shift in the academic landscape in Europe and around the world, helping researchers in all disciplines to benefit from solid statistical analysis and supporting researchers in economics, statistics and mathematics to cooperate with professionals in fields that traditionally might have avoided detailed quantitative analysis in research projects. If you have used Stata or other tools in a cross-discipline project, please share your experiences in the comments below. If you have not, then perhaps it is time to try and strengthen your own research through cooperation with your peers in other disciplines!
References
-
- INOMICS Salary Report
The Gender Ratio in Economics in 2022
In late 2022, the field of economics came under additional scrutiny for its unequal treatment of women. This article will examine the relative share of women in the field of economics, complementing the analysis of our survey data in the INOMICS Salary Report. This is helpful context for other discussions of gender discrimination in economics, as many statistics can be better understood after learning about the distribution of men and women in economics.
-
- Follow Economists Online
30 Top Twitter Feeds in Economics and Finance
Over the years, Twitter has become a useful and prominent tool within the social media fabric, particularly for professionals looking to network and make connections. Many renowned economists use Twitter, and economics researchers often post research updates using the #EconTwitter hashtag.
-
- INOMICS Salary Report
The Glass Ceiling and the “Leaky Pipeline” in Economics
The 2022 INOMICS Salary Report allowed us to examine the field of economics across employer types, job positions, and regions. This article continues with our look at gender (in)equality in economics by examining the glass ceiling. Below, we examine this effect in academia (economists employed by universities) and industry (other employer types).