Christian Düben

Christian Düben

@cdueben.bsky.social

Economist, Data Scientist, Software Developer. Postdoc at Monash University. Melbourne, Australia.

79 followers56 following47 posts

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

I had to install #Stata today to run someone else's code. Considering how quickly #software adoption changes in other fields, it is astonishing how something as outdated as Stata has managed to survive until 2026.

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

Since publishing the Monash SoDa Replicator, users have told me about Windows laptops provided by their university not allowing for local TeX Live installation. Hence, I have created a dev container that circumvents this problem: github.com/cdueben/tex_.... #tex #texlive #devcontainer #vscode 1/2

github.comGitHub - cdueben/tex_live_dev_container: Dev Container for TeX Live.Dev Container for TeX Live. Contribute to cdueben/tex_live_dev_container development by creating an account on GitHub.
Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

It is generally a good idea to use TeX Live via a dev container because this enforces the same setup for all coauthors. The container is compatible with but not part of the SoDa Replicator itself because it is not technically required and because it demands prior knowledge of WSL, Docker, etc. 2/2

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

David Kreitmeir and I published the synthetic matching method from Kreitmeir et al. (2025) as an #rstats package on CRAN (cran.r-project.org/package=synt...). Whereas my other recent R packages are primarily wrappers of my C++ code, synthReturn is a full R package (Fortran only in dependencies).

cran.r-project.orgsynthReturn: Synthetic Matching Method for ReturnsImplements the revised Synthetic Matching Algorithm of Kreitmeir, Lane, and Raschky (2025) &lt;<a href="https://doi.org/10.2139%2Fssrn.3751162" target="_top">doi:10.2139/ssrn.3751162</a>&gt;, building...
Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

My cppcontainers #rstats package (cran.r-project.org/package=cppc...) is back on CRAN. The functionality remains unchanged. It had just been archived on CRAN a few months ago because of NA placeholder values that threw compiler warnings in exotic builds on macOS. #cpp #datascience

cran.r-project.orgcppcontainers: 'C++' Standard Template Library ContainersUse 'C++' Standard Template Library containers interactively in R. Includes sets, unordered sets, multisets, unordered multisets, maps, unordered maps, multimaps, unordered multimaps, stacks, queues, ...
Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

I tried #Positron today. Forking and customizing VS Code instead of further pushing RStudio was a good choice. RStudio is not bad, but Positron seems nicer (and better for #rstats development than VS Code itself). Good job @posit.co👍.

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

There is a lot of childish discussion on the future of #rstats recently on this platform. #rstats is my main language and I will stick to it for a while. However, posts calling it perfect and denouncing any critique as invalid are ridiculous. #rstats has flaws that can threaten its future. 1/n

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Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

According to my own observation, there is a considerable shift from #rstats to Python among empirical researchers. A key driver of this is the Python-first nature of machine learning APIs. I think that #rstats will lose market share to Python, but it will not die soon. 5/n

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

There is a lot of childish discussion on the future of #rstats recently on this platform. #rstats is my main language and I will stick to it for a while. However, posts calling it perfect and denouncing any critique as invalid are ridiculous. #rstats has flaws that can threaten its future. 1/n

View full thread
Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

For now, the simplicity of #rstats makes it a better choice than Python for many users who do not need the versatility of a general purpose programming language. It keeps attracting users from outdated commercial software like Stata or SPSS. 4/n

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

There is a lot of childish discussion on the future of #rstats recently on this platform. #rstats is my main language and I will stick to it for a while. However, posts calling it perfect and denouncing any critique as invalid are ridiculous. #rstats has flaws that can threaten its future. 1/n

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

Compare the release notes of base R and #Python over the course of the past years. Python is leaping forward while base R is devoid of innovation. #rstats is kept alive and thriving by its packages. Unfortunately, the severe limitations of base R also limit the scope of package development. 2/n

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

I need to put together a deep learning model and I do not know whether I should go with #pytorch or #tensorflow + #keras. I have a little experience in the latter and none in the former. What would you recommend for someone who does not care about how pythonic a tool is?

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

I just had to install the most intrusive #software of my life. It automatically starts at boot, but does not show up in the OS's auto startup list. It does not have an exit button or settings. I have to shut down the background process in the process viewer/ task manager each time. 🫣

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

The new version of my spaths #rstats package (cran.r-project.org/package=spaths) removes the edge limit (previously 2^31 - 1). Do you need to handle 10 billion edges with custom transition functions? No problem, spaths can do that. #graph #theory

cran.r-project.orgspaths: Shortest Paths Between Points in GridsShortest paths between points in grids. Optional barriers and custom transition functions. Applications regarding planet Earth, as well as generally spheres and planes. Optimized for computational per...
Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

Over the course of the past years, I have received a number of emails asking why conleyreg (my first #rstats package) and fixest produce different results. Contributors to an issue in fixest's GitHub repo have now shown that both are economically correct. The assumptions just differ.

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

I am curious to see, if data editors are ready to download a TB of data per spatial project.

AEA Data Editor@aeadata.bsky.social

Short note on provision of "raw" data in replication packages. "Raw" are data files exactly as downloaded from original source. Not renamed, not converted, not made prettier. All that is important, and is the next step, for which you provide code (or instructions). But "raw" is as "raw as it gets".

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

We already got complaints from a data editor when code using pre-processed data took a few hours to run on his laptop. Code on raw data does not run at all or takes weeks on end user devices.

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

My wife is looking for a #job in #Melbourne, Australia. - #Chemical #engineer specialized in #water #treatment - Master's degree - Multiple years of experience in water treatment and science education - Fluent in 4 - 6 languages - Can start immediately Feel free to reach out for further questions.

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

I received my absentee ballot documents for the #German #federal #election today. The election is in three days and I live in Australia. Thanks for sending this on time 😄. #Bundestagswahl #Briefwahl

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

My new way of managing my #research projects' to-do lists: #GitHub issues (with authors assigned to them). (i) More persistent than scribbled down notes from meetings and conferences. (ii) Easy to reference in code commits. (iii) Separate topic-specific written discussion with coauthors. 1/2

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

(iv) Quickly get back to a project after not having worked on it for a while - just grab an issue and start from there. (v) Cleanly split solved and unsolved issues, while keeping the documentation. (vi) Track what everyone is currently doing based on issue assignment. 2/2

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

Does anyone have advice on how to reduce #political #propaganda in the feed? I welcome political news, but most of my feed is more manipulation attempt than news. Here on #Bluesky it is primarily left wing ideology, while X has also lots of right wing propaganda. How do I get a more neutral focus?

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

I am looking for contributors for my conleyreg #Rstats package. I keep getting feature requests, but am not going to do anything beyond basic maintenance myself. This is a great opportunity for aspiring R package #developers. The following issue outlines some details: github.com/cdueben/conl...

github.comFurther Development · Issue #5 · cdueben/conleyregconleyreg is my first R package. I developed it years ago within the scope of a paper revision. As far as I know, it remains many researchers' default choice for estimating Conley standard errors. ...
Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

You are welcome to contribute to my R packages. It is a great opportunity for anyone aspiring to transition from procedural empirical analysis code to package development. I will try to make the size of my commits more collaboration-friendly 😄. #rStats #openSource #scientificSoftware

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

Most #economists do not have formal training in #programming and usually stick to whatever language they learned as undergraduate students. In my experience, broadening the coding horizon can enhance empirical #research producitivity. A thread 🧵.

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Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

If you are considering taking a weekend away from research to improve your technical skills, now is a good time. E.g., #Udemy courses are currently on sale. In case you are still using Stata, you might want to explore a more professional alternative, like #R, #Python, or #Julia.

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

Most #economists do not have formal training in #programming and usually stick to whatever language they learned as undergraduate students. In my experience, broadening the coding horizon can enhance empirical #research producitivity. A thread 🧵.

Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

My new R package cppcontainers is now on CRAN: cran.r-project.org/package=cppc.... C++ STL containers in R. The package's vignette states its motivation: cran.r-project.org/web/packages.... It is my most quickly developed and most widely applicable package so far. #rstats #cpp #datascience

cran.r-project.orgcppcontainers: 'C++' Standard Template Library ContainersUse 'C++' Standard Template Library containers interactively in R. Includes sets, unordered sets, multisets, unordered multisets, maps, unordered maps, multimaps, unordered multimaps, stacks, queues, ...
Christian Düben
@cdueben.bsky.social

I am happy to announce the publication of my spaths package's latest version: github.com/ChristianDue.... The software computes shortest paths in gridded data. It is heavily computationally optimized and customizable. #RStats #Cpp #GraphTheory #GIS #EconTwitter

github.comGitHub - ChristianDueben/spaths: Shortest Paths Between Points in GridsShortest Paths Between Points in Grids. Contribute to ChristianDueben/spaths development by creating an account on GitHub.

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