Below is a list of the main improvements in 7.3. See our January 2010 RATSletter for more details, including a list of the many new procedures and examples that ship with 7.3.
For even more detailed information, download a copy of the RATS 7.3 Supplement that ships with the new version. This document lists all of the new features in 7.3, as well as those features added in 7.1 and 7.2
Users with a current Update Subscription should already have their copies of the RATS 7.3 CD. For other users, the basic price to update to Version 7.3 is $25 for users with Version 7.0, 7.1, or 7.2, and $150 for users with older versions of RATS (6.35 or older). See RATS Updates for details. If you have a multi-user license, please contact us for a quote on updating to 7.3.
See RATS 7.0-7.2 for information on the improvements introduced in versions 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2
The Data Wizard for spreadsheet, text, and similar files now allows you to preview the contents of the file you want to read, making it easier to choose the proper settings, deal with any header or footer lines, and so on. The Wizard also makes it easier to compact or expand data to a different frequency.
Building on the significant speed increases in 7.2, the 7.3 release offers even faster computations in many cases, particularly for state space models.
RATS 7.3 supports reading data from Excel® 2007 “xlsx” format spreadsheets, as well as Stata® data files and EViews® workbook files.
We’ve added a new Wizard interface for the RLS (Recursive Least Squares) estimation instruction.
DISPLAY has a new option for delimiting output with tabs, commas, or semicolons. Also, you can now use DISPLAY to show the contents of a parameter set or an equation.
The PRESAMPLE option has a new DIFFUSE choice, and PRESAMPLE=ERGODIC can now handle automatically models with a mix of stationary and non-stationary states. There are two new options: MU, which allows for a shift in the observable equation, and LIMIT, which limits the number of times certain matrices are recomputed—significantly reducing the computation time required for large, time-invariant state space models.
DSGE offers some important new options for capturing additional output and controlling aspects of the model.
Both now have SMOOTHING options which scale the default kernel width up or down.
The Report Windows operation replaces the old Restore Report operation, and applies to many more of the reports generated automatically by rats, including the tables of regression coefficients from estimation instructions. Also, rather than restoring reports in the order they were generated, you can now select the desired report from a list. You can now export report windows as TeX tables, in addition to the text file, spreadsheet, html, and other formats supported already. Finally, the new TITLE option on REPORT allows you to provide your own titles for user-generated reports.
RATS 7.3 includes several new built-in functions--see the newsletter or supplement links above for details.