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Stata Textbook Examples
Multilevel Analysis Techniques and Applications by Joop Hox
Chapter 4: Some Important Methodological and Statistical Issues

The data set used in this chapter is popular.dta.
use http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/examples/mlm_ma_hox/popular.dta, clear
The programs we use in this chapter are gllamm and gllapred. You can find the programs and download them by issuing command findit gllamm and findit gllapred (see How can I use the findit command to search for programs and get additional help? for more information about using findit). For more information, see http://www.gllamm.org.
Table 4.1 on page 57.
Part 1: The variable sex is a fixed effect, not centered.
gen cons = 1
eq sch_c: cons
gllamm popular sex, i(school) adapt nrf(1) eq(sch_c ) 

Iteration 0:   log likelihood = -2242.4431  (not concave)
Iteration 1:   log likelihood = -2242.4431 
number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100 
Condition Number = 5.8538169
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2242.4431
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
         sex |   .8437617   .0309587    27.25   0.000     .7830838    .9044396
       _cons |   4.897324   .0948272    51.64   0.000     4.711466    5.083182
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variance at level 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.45976423 (.01491828)
Variances and covariances of random effects
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .85332444 (.12397587)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2: The variable sex is a fixed effect, raw centered. We first created a centered variable csex for sex.
sum sex

    Variable |     Obs        Mean   Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+-----------------------------------------------------
         sex |    2000        .487    .499956          0          1
         
gen csex = sex - .487
gllamm popular csex, i(school) adapt nrf(1) eq(sch_c ) 

Iteration 0:   log likelihood = -2242.4431  
Iteration 1:   log likelihood = -2242.4431  (backed up)
number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100 
Condition Number = 5.770973
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2242.4431
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
        csex |   .8437679   .0309587    27.25   0.000       .78309    .9044458
       _cons |   5.308208   .0936253    56.70   0.000     5.124706     5.49171
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variance at level 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.45976398 (.01491826)
Variances and covariances of random effects
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .8533484 (.12398179)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 3: The variable sex is included as a random effect.
eq sch_s: sex
gllamm popular sex, i(school) adapt nrf(2) eq(sch_c sch_s) nip(10)

overflow at level 1 ( 2000 missing values)
Iteration 0:   log likelihood =   -2164.81  (not concave)
Iteration 1:   log likelihood =   -2164.81
number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100
Condition Number = 6.0668644
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2164.81
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
         sex |   .8431011   .0595275    14.16   0.000     .7264294    .9597729
       _cons |   4.889713   .0985275    49.63   0.000     4.696602    5.082823
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variance at level 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.39276323 (.01310068)
Variances and covariances of random effects
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .93057658 (.13755058)
    cov(2,1): -.14062495 (.06150458) cor(2,1): -.27993848
    var(2): .27117361 (.05062667)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 4: The variable sex is centered and is a random effect.
eq sch_cs: csex
gllamm popular csex, i(school) adapt nrf(2) eq(sch_c sch_cs) nip(10)

overflow at level 1 ( 2000 missing values)
overflow at level 1 ( 2000 missing values)
overflow at level 1 ( 2000 missing values)
overflow at level 1 ( 2000 missing values)
overflow at level 1 ( 2000 missing values)
Iteration 0:   log likelihood = -2164.8092  
Iteration 1:   log likelihood = -2164.8091
number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100
Condition Number = 5.6405438
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2164.8091
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
        csex |   .8432686   .0594125    14.19   0.000     .7268222     .959715
       _cons |   5.301004   .0938812    56.46   0.000        5.117    5.485008
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variance at level 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.3926911 (.01309742)
Variances and covariances of random effects
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .86073658 (.12487103)
    cov(2,1): -.00787439 (.0558919) cor(2,1): -.01633958
    var(2): .26982466 (.05030262)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table 4.2 on page 60.
Part 1: No interaction, no centering.
eq sch_c: cons
eq sch_s: sex
gllamm popular texp sex, i(school) adapt nrf(2) eq(sch_c sch_s) 

Iteration 0:   log likelihood = -2130.5924  
Iteration 1:   log likelihood = -2130.5924  (backed up)
number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100
Condition Number = 40.750777
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2130.5924
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
        texp |   .1086393   .0109591     9.91   0.000     .0871599    .1301187
         sex |   .8432268   .0596367    14.14   0.000      .726341    .9601127
       _cons |   3.335057   .1703028    19.58   0.000      3.00127    3.668844
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variance at level 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.39215591 (.01307054)
Variances and covariances of random effects
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .40612555 (.06376658)
    cov(2,1): .02252195 (.0433015) cor(2,1): .06767289
    var(2): .27272336 (.05087203)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2: With interaction, but no centering.
gen gxt = sex*texp
gllamm popular texp sex gxt, i(school) adapt nrf(2) eq(sch_c sch_s) 

number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100
Condition Number = 45.72526
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2122.9085
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
        texp |   .1102169   .0099904    11.03   0.000      .090636    .1297977
         sex |    1.32949    .130912    10.16   0.000     1.072907    1.586073
         gxt |   -.034026   .0083388    -4.08   0.000    -.0503697   -.0176822
       _cons |   3.313841   .1566164    21.16   0.000     3.006879    3.620804
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variance at level 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
.39236316 (.01308622)
Variances and covariances of random effects
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .40543808 (.0627154)
    cov(1,2): .02386608 (.03657119) cor(1,2): .0795611
    var(2): .22194032 (.04304873)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 3: Centering, but no interaction. We first created new variables csex and ctexp.
sum sex texp

    Variable |     Obs        Mean   Std. Dev.       Min        Max
-------------+-----------------------------------------------------
         sex |    2000        .487    .499956          0          1
        texp |    2000      14.263   6.551816          2         25

gen csex = sex - .487
gen ctexp = texp - 14.263
eq sch_cs: csex
gllamm popular ctexp csex, i(school) adapt nrf(2) eq(sch_c sch_cs) 

Iteration 0:   log likelihood = -2130.5886  
Iteration 1:   log likelihood = -2130.5886
number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100
Condition Number = 7.6882806
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2130.5886
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
       ctexp |   .1083871   .0109338     9.91   0.000     .0869572     .129817
        csex |   .8431748   .0595189    14.17   0.000     .7265198    .9598297
       _cons |   5.296027   .0713829    74.19   0.000      5.15612    5.435935
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variance at level 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.39250908 (.01308857)
Variances and covariances of random effects
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .48895935 (.07367622)
    cov(2,1): .15310509 (.04822943) cor(2,1): .42040184
    var(2): .27125472 (.05053632)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 4: Centering and with interaction. First we created the interaction term of centered variable csex and ctexp.
gen csxctp = csex*ctexp
gllamm popular ctexp csex csxctp, i(school) adapt nrf(2) eq(sch_c sch_cs) 

Iteration 0:   log likelihood = -2122.9262  (not concave)
Iteration 1:   log likelihood = -2122.9262
number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100
Condition Number = 10.144082
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2122.9262
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
       ctexp |   .0937768   .0107735     8.70   0.000     .0726611    .1148926
        csex |   .8445003   .0551347    15.32   0.000     .7364384    .9525622
      csxctp |  -.0339454   .0083838    -4.05   0.000    -.0503773   -.0175135
       _cons |   5.296914   .0708369    74.78   0.000     5.158076    5.435751
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variance at level 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.39248971 (.01308628)
Variances and covariances of random effects
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .48124165 (.07133837)
    cov(2,1): .13159538 (.04146938) cor(2,1): .40346808
    var(2): .22105469 (.04324507)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Figure 4.3on page 61. Regression lines for popularity of girls and boys, predicted by teacher experience texp. This uses model in Part 2 of table 4.2. We use the model to obtain the predicted values by the variables sex, texp and their interaction.
gen gxt = sex*texp
gllamm popular texp sex gxt, i(school) adapt nrf(2) eq(sch_c sch_s) 

Iteration 0:   log likelihood = -2122.9298  
Iteration 1:   log likelihood = -2122.9298  (backed up)
number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100
Condition Number = 45.868482
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2122.9298
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
        texp |   .1102158   .0101679    10.84   0.000      .090287    .1301445
         sex |   1.329446   .1324726    10.04   0.000     1.069804    1.589087
         gxt |  -.0340267   .0084205    -4.04   0.000    -.0505305   -.0175229
       _cons |   3.313861   .1600069    20.71   0.000     3.000253    3.627468
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variance at level 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.3923864 (.01307988)
Variances and covariances of random effects
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .40632752 (.06373128)
    cov(2,1): .02339192 (.03724399) cor(2,1): .07758212
    var(2): .22373414 (.04387262)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

gllapred p, xb
label variable p "Predicted Values"
sort sex texp
graph twoway scatter p texp, connect(L) msymbol(i) ylabel(3.5(.5)7) xlabel(0(10)30)
Table 4.3
Part 1: Intercept only. This has been done in Chapter 2.
use http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/examples/mlm_ma_hox/popular.dta, clear
gllamm popular, i(school) adapt 

number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100
Condition Number = 5.8576802
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2556.3612
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
       _cons |   5.307604   .0950217    55.86   0.000     5.121365    5.493843
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variance at level 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
.63867681 (.02072164)
Variances and covariances of random effects
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .87068762 (.12771943)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

di 2*2556.3612
5112.7224
Part 2: The variable sex is included as a fixed effect. This has been done in table 4.1.
gen cons = 1
eq sch_c: cons
gllamm popular sex, i(school) adapt nrf(1) eq(sch_c ) 

Iteration 0:   log likelihood = -2242.4431  (not concave)
Iteration 1:   log likelihood = -2242.4431
number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100
Condition Number = 5.8538169
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2242.4431
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
         sex |   .8437617   .0309587    27.25   0.000     .7830838    .9044396
       _cons |   4.897324   .0948272    51.64   0.000     4.711466    5.083182
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variance at level 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.45976423 (.01491828)
Variances and covariances of random effects
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .85332444 (.12397587)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 3: The variable texp is also included.
gllamm popular sex texp, i(school) adapt nrf(1) eq(sch_c ) 

Iteration 0:   log likelihood = -2214.2878  
Iteration 1:   log likelihood = -2214.2878  (backed up)
number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100
Condition Number = 37.965306
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2214.2878
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
         sex |    .844684    .030945    27.30   0.000      .784033    .9053351
        texp |    .093589   .0107724     8.69   0.000     .0724755    .1147026
       _cons |   3.558824   .1701959    20.91   0.000     3.225246    3.892402
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
Variance at level 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.45972135 (.01491621)
Variances and covariances of random effects
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .47832207 (.07123085)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 4: The variable sex is included as a random effect.
gllamm popular sex texp, i(school) adapt nrf(2) eq(sch_c sch_s) 

Iteration 0:   log likelihood = -2130.5924  
Iteration 1:   log likelihood = -2130.5924  (backed up)
number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100
Condition Number = 40.750775
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2130.5924
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
         sex |   .8432268   .0596367    14.14   0.000      .726341    .9601127
        texp |   .1086393   .0109591     9.91   0.000     .0871599    .1301187
       _cons |   3.335057   .1703027    19.58   0.000      3.00127    3.668844
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variance at level 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.39215591 (.01307054)
Variances and covariances of random effects
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .40612555 (.06376658)
    cov(2,1): .02252195 (.0433015) cor(2,1): .06767289
    var(2): .27272335 (.05087203)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 5: The interaction of sex and texp is included. This is Part 2 of table 4.2.
gen gxt = sex*texp
gllamm popular texp sex gxt, i(school) adapt nrf(2) eq(sch_c sch_s) 

number of level 1 units = 2000
number of level 2 units = 100
Condition Number = 45.72526
gllamm model
log likelihood = -2122.9085
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     popular |      Coef.   Std. Err.      z    P>|z|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
        texp |   .1102169   .0099904    11.03   0.000      .090636    .1297977
         sex |    1.32949    .130912    10.16   0.000     1.072907    1.586073
         gxt |   -.034026   .0083388    -4.08   0.000    -.0503697   -.0176822
       _cons |   3.313841   .1566164    21.16   0.000     3.006879    3.620804
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Variance at level 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
.39236316 (.01308622)
Variances and covariances of random effects
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
***level 2 (school)
    var(1): .40543808 (.0627154)
    cov(1,2): .02386608 (.03657119) cor(1,2): .0795611
    var(2): .22194032 (.04304873)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table 4.4 can be produced manually based on the equations provided in this section. We omit the calculation here.

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