________ README ________ Table of Contents _________________ 1 Initial requirements for running the programs 2 Replicating the results in the paper 3 Running the suite of programs to update results 4 Data series 1 Initial requirements for running the programs =============================================== The programs were run using a Windows machine, using Stata 14.1 and MATLAB R2015b. Stata requires the use of its new .dta format (see the Stata documentation for the saveold command). A version of MATLAB that can be run from a Windows command line is required. Stata uses the following packages: - estout - regsave - freduse - hprescott - labutil - unique These packages can by installed by typing ssc install estout in the Stata command line. Stata uses the internet to access the Statistical Software Components (SSC) archive or the Boston College Archive at [http://www.repec.org]. NB: issuing this command adds programs to the system directory. 2 Replicating the results in the paper ====================================== To replicate the results, change the working directory of Stata to the analysis/code directory. Run rundirectory.do (type "do rundirectory.do" on the Stata command line). The programs output results to the slides directory. The produced tables and figures are saved in the slides directory. The figures are saved as .eps files and the tables as .tex files and collected in basu-house-rep.tex. 3 Running the suite of programs to update results ================================================= The build directory contains programs that dynamically grab the most recent economic data available from FRED. Running the build directory and then the analysis directory will not reproduce the results in the paper; however, doing so will "update" the results. (Running the build directory, for example, will grab the latest GDP series, which will affect the series of HP-filtered GDP used as a measure of cyclicality.) To run the suite of programs, navigate Stata to the build/code directory and run rundirectory.do. Then navigate Stata to the analysis/code directory and run rundirectory.do. The updated results will be contained in the slides directory. 4 Data series ============= The main data series are collected in wages.xlsx. The wage series constructed for new hires and the user cost of labor are included, both with and without adjusting for cumulative tightness. The average hourly earnings from the BLS are also included. All the series are demeaned and linearly detrended.