Category Archives: sequence_analysis

SDMKSUBS: A new SADI command for substitution costs

sequence_analysis, Stata,

A new command

In this blog I introduce a new utility command, sdmksubs, which creates substitution cost matrices for sequence analysis, as part of the SADI Stata add-ons.

Most sequence-analysis distance commands require the specification of substitution costs, which describe the pattern of differences in the state space through which the sequences move. These can be derived from theory, from external data, or can be imposed by researcher fiat. It is also common to use the pattern of transitions in the sequence data to derive them, though this is not an unproblematically good idea. The existing trans2subs command in SADI calculates simple transition-based substitution costs. The new sdmksubs calculates this substitution cost structure, and a range of others, some simple “theoretical” ones, and some based on the transition pattern, but taking more of the data into account than the traditional trans2subs matrix.

SADI is a Stata package sequence analysis of data such as lifecourse histories, and has been around for quite a while. Recent improvements includes fixes for internal changes in Stata 18, lifting limits on sequence length, etc., but here I focus on sdmksubs only.

Continue reading SDMKSUBS: A new SADI command for substitution costs →

Discrepancy analysis in Stata

sequence_analysis, Stata

In Studer et al (2011) an important new tool is introduced to the field of sequence analysis, the idea of “discrepancy” as a way of analysing pairwise distances. This quantity is shown to be analogous to variance, and is thus amenable to ANOVA-type analysis, which means it is a very attractive complement to cluster analysis of distance matrices.

This has been implemented in TraMineR (under R), along with a raft of other innovations coming out of Geneva and Lausanne. Up to now it hasn’t been available elsewhere. I spoke to Matthias Studer at the LaCOSA conference, and he convinced me that it was easy to code, and that all the information required was in the paper. This turned out to be the case, and I have written an initial Stata implementation. Continue reading Discrepancy analysis in Stata →

Cluster analysis is unstable, we knew that!

sequence_analysis, Stata

Experience tells me that small changes in the data can lead to substantial changes in the solution of a cluster analysis. This is especially true when the space is sparsely populated, as is the case with sequence analysis of lifecourses. Small changes in parameterisation (e.g., substitution costs) can lead to substantial differences in the cluster solution.

However, recently I came across an extreme case of sensitivity. Continue reading Cluster analysis is unstable, we knew that! →