We describe the spreg command, which implements a maximum likelihood estimator and a generalized spatial two-stage least-squares estimator for the parameters of a linear cross-sectional spatial-autoregressive model with spatial-autoregressive disturbances.

We present the spmat command for creating, managing, and storing spatial-weighting matrices, which are used to model interactions between spatial or more generally cross-sectional units. spmat can store spatial-weighting matrices in a general and banded form. We illustrate the use of the spmat command and discuss some of the underlying issues by using United States county and postalcode-level data.

Productivity is often computed by approximating the weighted sum of the inputs from the estimation of the Cobb-Douglas production function. Such estimates, however, may suffer from simultaneity and selection biases. Olley and Pakes (1996, Econometrica 64: 1263-1297) introduced a semiparametric method that allows us to estimate the production function parameters consistently and thus obtain reliable productivity measures by controlling for such biases. This study first reviews this method and then introduces a Stata command to implement it. We show that when simultaneity and selection biases are not controlled for, the coefficients for the variable inputs are biased upward and the coefficients for the fixed inputs are biased downward.

We describe the spivreg command, which estimates the parameters of linear cross-sectional spatial-autoregressive models with spatial-autoregressive disturbances, where the model may also contain additional endogenous variables as well as exogenous variables. spivreg uses results and the literature cited in

This article argues that the structuralist effects on the large variation in the diverse human rights and democratization records of post-communist states can be best explained through the optic of postcolonialism. This approach would not override recent effects of strategic actors, though the type of postcolonialism in a post-communist state greatly constrains their actions. Among the postcolonial constraints are unsolved colonial-era problems, the type of colonial mentorship and institutions, the process of decolonization and the immediate regime path created in extricating from communism, the ongoing metropolitan-postcolonial elite relationships, and their links to mass politics. Five postcolonial regions emerge that reflect variable colonial and postcolonial experiences. The Soviet colonial experience had the most negative, direct, and ongoing effects on the former Soviet republics. Postcolonial effects on East Central Europe and the Balkans are less than the former USSR because of overlapping colonial heritages with Western empires and the shorter Soviet influence.