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The Case Against Stata for Data Analysis
Insights for Modern Economists
Economists love Stata. Rumor has it that every time someone criticizes the software, a fairy drops dead somewhere. (I hear it’s not the case for quantitative Political Scientists.)
Recently, however, voices of dissent have grown louder, with increasing affection for alternatives like Python, R, and even Julia. The trends are becoming hard to ignore. This love (or hate) for Stata has sparked heated debates among economists, especially on social media.
In fact, at CEU, we hosted a public debate where my team, representing Python, faced off against R and a formidable pro-Stata faction. Despite entering as underdogs, we emerged victorious — though it took days for the Stata die-hards to finally acknowledge the result!
Before launching into an “anti-Stata rant,” let me clarify what I mean by data analysis. Data analysis typically involves several key elements: (1) data cleaning, (2) data manipulation, (3) data visualization, and (4) statistical modeling.
