.- help for ^prstar^ - 11/26/00 .- Setting values for independent variables for ^prchange^, ^prgen^, ^prtab^, and ^prvalue^ The commands ^prchange^, ^prgen^, ^prtab^, and ^prvalue^ compute predicted values based on specific values of the independent variables. For these commands, the values of the independent variables are set using the ^x()^, ^rest()^, and ^all^ options. This entry provides a detailed description of how to use these options to set the values for the independent variables for any of these commands. Options to set values of independent variables ---------------------------------------------- ^x(^variable1 value1 ...^)^ assigns value1 to variable1, value2 to variable2, and so on. You can assign values to as many or as few variables as you want. The assigned value is either a specific number (e.g., female 1) or a mnemonic specifying a descriptive statistic (e.g., phd mean to set variable phd to the sample mean; pub3 max to assign pub3 to the maximum value in the sample). The available descriptive statistics are presented below. Only numeric values can be used if a group statistic has been specified with ^rest()^. ^rest(^stat^)^ sets the values of all variables not specified in ^x()^ to the sample statistic indicated by stat. If ^x()^ is not specified, all variables are set to stat, e.g., rest(mean) sets all variables to their mean. The choices for stat can be unconditional or conditional on a group specified by ^x()^. For example, ^x(female 0) rest(grmean)^ sets female to 0 and all other variables to the their mean for those where female is 0. If ^rest()^ is not specified, it is assumed to be ^rest(mean)^. The available types of ^stat^ are: ^mean^, ^median^, ^min^, and ^max^ refer to the mean, median, minimum, and maximum, conditional on any ^if^ or ^in^ conditions that are specified. Descriptive statistics are calculated using the estimation sample unless the ^all^ option has been specified, in which case all observations in memory are used. ^previous^ refers to the most recently used values. ^upper^ and ^lower^ can only be used with binary models, and refer to the values of the independent variables that yield either the highest (^upper^) or lowest (^lower^) probability of a positive outcome. ^grmean^, ^grmedian^, ^grmin^, ^grmax^ refer to the group mean, median, minimum, and maximum. These statistics are calculated for whatever group of observations is specified in ^x()^. For example, ^prvalue, x(male 0 white 0) rest(grmean)^ calculates predicted probabilities where male and white are held to 0 and the other independent variables are held to the means of the observations in which male==0 and white==0. This is the same as typing ^prvalue if male==0 & white==0, x(male 0 white 0) rest(mean)^. ^all^ specifies that all observations in memory are to be used to calculate descriptive statistics, excepting cases excluded by ^if^ or ^in^ conditions or the use of ^rest(^gr*^)^. The default is to use only the cases in the estimation sample. Examples -------- To set all independent variables to mean ^. prvalue^ To set male to 0, ed to 12, age to 30, and hold all other independent variables to their means: ^. prvalue, x(male 0 ed 12 age 30) rest(mean)^ To set age to 40, while male stays at 0 and ed stays at 12: ^. prvalue, x(age 40) rest(previous)^ To set male to 0, and hold all other values to the mean for males: ^. prvalue, x(male 0) rest(grmean)^ To set male to 0, age to median, all other independent variables to the mean: ^. prvalue, x(male 0 age median) rest(mean)^ To compute means using the full sample instead of the estimation sample: ^. prvalue, x(male 0 age median) rest(mean) all^ .- Authors: J. Scott Long and Jeremy Freese www.indiana.edu/~jslsoc/spost.htm spostsup@@indiana.edu