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eiCompare (version 3.0.4)

ei_iter: Iterative EI Estimation

Description

This function runs enables running iterative ecoligical inference (EI) to estimate the proportion of votes by different race/ethnicity groups for different political candidates.

Usage

ei_iter(
  data,
  cand_cols,
  race_cols,
  totals_col,
  name = "",
  erho = 10,
  seed = NULL,
  plots = FALSE,
  eiCompare_class = TRUE,
  betas = FALSE,
  par_compute = FALSE,
  n_cores = NULL,
  verbose = FALSE,
  plot_path = NULL,
  ...
)

Value

If eiCompare_class = TRUE, an object of class eiCompare is returned. Otherwise, a dataframe is returned that matches the formatting of ei_est_gen output.

Arguments

data

A data.frame() object containing precinct-level turnout data by race and candidate

cand_cols

A character vector listing the column names for turnout for each candidate

race_cols

A character vector listing the column names for turnout by race

totals_col

The name of the column containing total votes cast in each precinct

name

A unique identifier for the outputted eiCompare object.

erho

A number passed directly to ei::ei(). Defaulted to 10. Can also pass in a vector of erho values

seed

An integer seed value for replicating estimate results across runs. If NULL, a random seed is chosen. Defaulted to NULL.

plots

A boolean indicating whether or not to include density and tomography plots

eiCompare_class

default = TRUE

betas

A boolean to return precinct-level betas for each 2x2 ei

par_compute

A boolean to conduct ei using parallel processing

n_cores

The number of cores to use in parallel computation. Defaulted to NULL, in which case parallel::detectCores() - 1 is used

verbose

A boolean indicating whether to print out status messages.

plot_path

A string to specify plot save location. If NULL, plot is not saved

...

Additional arguments passed directly to ei::ei()

Author

Loren Collingwood <loren.collingwood@ucr.edu>

Ari Decter-Frain <agd75@cornell.edu>

Hikari Murayama <hikari_murayama@berkeley.edu>

Details

Iterative EI iterates through all possible race-candidate pairs. For each pair, votes by other races and for other candidates are binned and 2x2 ecological inference is run.

This function wraps around the ei function from the ei R package. This function is unstable and can break in arbitrary ways. Errors often emerge with particular values of the erho parameter. If the function breaks, it will automatically try adjusting the erho parameter, first to 20, then to 0.5.

If problems persist, please submit an issue on the eiCompare github repository and include the error message you receive.

References

eiPack. Gary King (1997). A Solution to the Ecological Inference Problem. Princeton: Princeton University Press.