calculate-methods

name	calculate-methods
description	Methods for calculating statistics and estimates using economic data. Use when user asks to calculate or estimate quantities like percentiles, means, medians, shares, counts, or regression coefficients or regression-adjusted statistics.

Moving averages and sliding windows

Often data over time is very noisy and moving averages can better extract signals. Use the R package slider for calculations over sliding windows like moving averages.

Weighted means, medians, percentiles

Use weighted.mean(vector, w = weight) for weighted means.

Use the MetricsWeighted package for weighted medians and percentiles: weighted_median(vector, w = weight) and weighted_quantile(vector, w = weight, probs = c(0.25, 0.50, 0.75)).

Percentiles with "bunched" data

When using data that is assumed to be continuous but in practice is "bunched" at discrete points -- like reported hourly wages -- it can be helpful to smooth the estimated percentiles. One technique is to take a weighted average of nearby percentiles. For example, consider using the epidatatools package averaged_median(vector, w = weight) and averaged_quantile(vector, w = weight, probs = c(0.25, 0.50, 0.75)).