Request for help with using the AIDS model in analysing legal timber purchases in Cameroon

[OFung]

Dear all, do accept greetings. I am currently working on legal timber use in Cameroon. I opted to use the Almost Ideal Demand Systems model by Deaton and Melbauer (1980). I was impressed by the works of one of the experts of this community on meat on the SAS website.

I have already collected all my data but I as a new user of SAS, my challenge is how to use SAS and estimate the parameters of this model. I am looking at the revenue and price elasticities of legal timber. 

I used cross-sectional data collected from 20 timber markets. As a beginner with SAS, I humbly request for an expert hand in the forum to help in doing the modeling for me through SAS.

I am honored to belong to this community of great minds.

[sbxkoenk]

Hello @OFung ,

I'm asking hereby to @BeverlyBrown or @ChrisHemedinger or someone else with super-powers to move this topic to the

Analytics > SAS Forecasting and Econometrics board

, as this is an 'Econometrics question'.

The 'New Users' board is for easier questions. 😏😉

First of all, can you submit :

%PUT &=sysvlong4;
%PUT &=sysscp;

and provide us with the LOG? That way we know about the SAS version you are using and your operating system (OS).

Also do you have SAS/ETS (Econometrics and Time Series) and / or SAS VIYA Econometrics?

Submit

proc setinit; run;
proc product_status; run;

to find out!

You say you have cross-sectional data and I am sure your data have time series as well.
Hence you have Time-Series Cross-Sectional data (aka PANEL data).
SAS has multiple PROCedures to deal with PANEL data, as there are : PROC PANEL, PROC CPANEL, PROC MIXED , PROC TSCSREG, PROC TSMODEL and some more.

Here's some info on price elasticities and the AIDS model with SAS:

• SAS/ETS Examples -- Calculating Price Elasticity of Demand
  https://support.sas.com/rnd/app/ets/examples/simpelast/index.htm
• SAS Global Forum 2013 - Paper 425-2013
  Price- and Cross-Price Elasticity Estimation using SAS®
  Dawit Mulugeta, Jason Greenfield, Tison Bolen and Lisa Conley, Cardinal Health,
  Pricing Analytics Team, Dublin, Ohio 43017, USA
  https://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings13/425-2013.pdf
• SAS/ETS Examples -- Estimating an Almost Ideal Demand System Model
  https://support.sas.com/rnd/app/ets/examples/aids/index.htm
  https://support.sas.com/rnd/app/ets/examples/aids/sas.htm

Kind regards,
Koen

[OFung]

Dear Koen,

Thanks immensely for the wonderful insight. While we await @BeverlyBrown or @ChrisHemedinger or someone else with super-powers to move this topic, my dataset is still offline on Excel 2013 sheets.

I am yet to understand the basics of moving forward with uploading it in CAS so I don’t yet have information on

%PUT &=sysvlong4;

%PUT &=sysscp;

neither do I have information on the LOG.

I am barely starting with the SAS Software Certified Young Professionals Program (SAS SCYP) with the software package that goes along with it. Since this is only my second day of classes I don’t fully grasp which of the versions are most suitable for use in the AIDS model.

Before developing interest in SAS, it is thanks to the following links you sent. I think I have come across them before

https://support.sas.com/rnd/app/ets/examples/simpelast/index.htm

https://support.sas.com/rnd/app/ets/examples/aids/index.htm
https://support.sas.com/rnd/app/ets/examples/aids/sas.htm

I saw them once doing research online. This was some weeks back and I noticed that it was possible using the AIDS model and SAS to estimate its parameters. That is why I became more interested and have decided to take a course in the software.

I really hope to have expertise that will permit me do the estimations or better still work with the guidance of an expert so that I can go ahead with the publication of my paper.

I look forward to hearing from you and from other great minds in the forum.

Cheers

OFung

[sbxkoenk]

Hello,

Your question is on the correct board now.

Is there a concrete subject that you would like help with right now?

Can you wait with your modelling project until you finished SCYP?

Things will be 1000 times easier after SCYP.

Kind regards,

Koen

[OFung]

Hi,

Thank you for the speedy response.

Since my SCYP training with take a couple of months and I'd like to submit my article to a publishing house, I would appreciate it if an expert can handle the modeling while I pursue my SCYP training.

I have several other articles I intend to work on and I will be able to use my knowledge from SCYP training for future articles.

I would really still be glad to have an expert help in the estimations. Apart from that I have no other worry for now. 

Cheers

Obed 

[sbxkoenk]

Hello Obed,

I doubt that you will find a volunteer here on the forum who will do the whole analysis for you. If it is a couple of hours work maybe, but who knows ... , it might take a week.
I don't begrudge you finding a volunteer, but you can't count on it.
You can always order SAS-consulting, of course, but researchers usually don't have enough budget for that.
I don't know what country you are in, but I would contact the SAS office in your country. Maybe they have a small budget to help academic research.
With specific questions I can still help you, but to do the whole analysis ... unfortunately I don't have the time for that.

Kind regards,

Koen

[OFung]

Hi Koen

Thanks for such helpful feedback. As a new user, I didn’t anticipate it’d take that long for the estimations to be done. I therefore completely understand when you say expecting a volunteer to show up for the entire work could be a little uphill.

I however in these circumstances wish I could have someone who could give me the conditions for guidance or for working together. It is true that I don’t have a budget for a personal paper like the one I am currently writing. I am in Cameroon and I wonder whether there is a SAS-consulting office here that could assist an academic research of this nature.

If I can’t have support or anybody to work with at this stage, then I will have to wait and finish up with my SCYP training. I’m glad you indicated that “things will be 1000 times easier after SCYP”. I appreciate your sense of accommodation.

Cheers

Obed

[sbxkoenk]

Hello Obed,

The estimations themselves just take a minute of course (or less!), but setting up everything (data engineering) and preparing the data for analysis takes a bit more time.

If you have like a text-book example, everything can be done in half a day, but most research and projects are not like text-book examples. There are always obstacles and hick-ups on the road towards final goal. That's my experience and it is wise to assume that.

[EDIT] Typically you also need several iterations. Completing the 1st iteration gives you ideas for fine-tuning and hence a 2nd iteration. The results of the 2nd iteration gives you ideas and 'aha'-experiences for another round ... until you are satisfied.

As far as offices in Africa are concerned, I think there's an office in

• Maroc (https://www.sas.com/fr_ma/home.html)
• and one in South Africa (https://www.sas.com/en_za/home.html)
  depending on which language you want to be helped in (French / English respectively).

I guess Cameroon is French speaking (as a 2nd or 3rd language, correct?).

Kind regards,

Koen

[OFung]

Hi Koen

Each time you reach out I get to discover something new about SAS.

Cameroon is a bilingual country with both French and English as their national languages. I am English speaking because I am born and bred in the Anglophone region of the country. However, I equally have a mastery of the French language.

Coming back to the findings you promised making, I’d prefer you to get in touch with the SAS office in South Africa if they have any funding or a potential co-writer for the paper. South Africa itself is very far from Cameroon… I am a bit skeptical about proximity. Anyways, this can be handled online.   

If that doesn’t work, I wouldn’t have to bother you any longer. I’ll endeavor to solve the problem myself after the training.

Cheers

Obed

[sbxkoenk]

Hello Obed,

I'm from Belgium living in the Dutch-(Flemish-)speaking part of the country, but if I walk 400 metres south I'm crossing the linguistic border with the French speaking part of the country. Thus, I equally have a mastery of the French language. 😉

About the SAS office in South Africa : I will try to contact them.

Stay tuned!

Koen

[OFung]

Hi Koen,

How nice to have you touch base with SAS South Africa! You are trilingual then; French, English and Flemish. It's advantageous to come from a country like yours. Very nice. 

I stay tuned to have the feedback from South Africa.

Cheers

Obed

[sbxkoenk · Accepted solution]

Hello Obed,

German is also an official language in Belgium (as about 5% of our population speaks German as native language / mother tongue), but I do not speak German myself unfortunately. 

I will ping you when I hear back from my South-African colleagues.

I will maybe shift to private mail instead of making this topic thread any longer.

[EDIT] Private mail is possible inside these communities (via your profile). No need to put your e-mail address in this thread!!

Koen

[OFung]

Thank you so much Koen. Let's wait up for SAS South Africa and let's use private mails too. There is a lot on this topic I think we can discuss on privately. My email is on my profile.

Cheers,

Obed