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The Stata Journal
Volume 9 Number 2: pp. 306-314



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Speaking Stata: I. J. Good and quasi–Bayes smoothing of categorical frequencies

Nicholas J. Cox
Department of Geography
Durham University
Durham, UK
[email protected]
Abstract.  I. J. Good (1916–2009) was a prolific scientist who contributed to many fields, mostly from a Bayesian standpoint. This column explains his idea of quasi-Bayes (a.k.a. pseudo-Bayes) estimation or smoothing of categorical frequencies in a contingency table, which is especially useful as a way of dealing with awkward sampling or random zeros. It shows how the method can be implemented, almost calculator-style, using a combination of Stata and Mata. Convenience commands qsbayesi and qsbayes are also introduced.
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View all articles with these keywords: qsbayesi, qsbayes, categorical data, contingency tables, Mata, pseudo-Bayes, quasi-Bayes, random zeros, sampling zeros, smoothing

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