Constructing a summary index using the standardized inverse-covariance weighted average of indicators

Benjamin Schwab, Sarah Janzen, Nicholas Magnan () and William M. Thompson ()
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William M. Thompson: IDInsight

Stata Journal, 2020, vol. 20, issue 4, 952-964

Abstract: Researchers often want to examine the relationship between a variable of interest and multiple related outcomes. To avoid problems of inference that arise from testing multiple hypotheses, one can create a summary index of the outcomes. Summary indices facilitate generalizing findings and can be more powerful than individual tests. In this article, we introduce a command, swindex, that implements the generalized least-squares method of index construction pro- posed by Anderson (2008, Journal of the American Statistical Association 103: 1481–1495). We describe the command and its options and provide an example based on Blattman, Fiala, and Martinez’s (2014, Quarterly Journal of Economics 129: 697–752) evaluation of a cash transfer program in Uganda.

Keywords: swindex; index construction; GLS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1536867X20976325

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