RATS
Econometrics software
Overview
For more than two decades, RATS has been the econometrics software of choice at universities, central banks, and corporations around the world. Our current release, Version 8.1, is easier to use than ever while continuing to offer the most advanced tools available for cutting-edge econometrics research.
Some of the main features of RATS are outlined below. For more details, you can also download the RATS Brochure in PDF format, which includes general information on RATS, a list of features, and information on the CATS cointegration analysis package.
Econometrics and Data Management
RATS provides all the basics you expect, including linear and non-linear least squares, forecasting, SUR, and ARIMA models. But it goes far beyond that, with support for techniques like GMM, ARCH and GARCH models, state space models, and more. RATS also offers unmatched support for Vector Autoregression models, and is one of the few programs to offer spectral analysis capabilities.
RATS can handle time series of virtually any frequency, including daily and weekly, as well as panel and cross-section data.
Menu-driven data wizards and support for reading various text, spreadsheet, and database file formats make it easy to get your data into RATS. Our Professional version adds support for more database formats, including SQL/ODBC data access, for even more flexibility.
The RATS editor
Our interactive RATS Editor environment allows you to quickly implement econometric analysis tasks, and makes it easy to try different model specifications or techniques without having to rerun entire programs.
You can save your work as a RATS program, allowing you to reproduce your results at any time with just a couple of mouse clicks.
Point-and-click wizards
The editor also offers more than 40 menu-driven Wizards that provide point-and-click access to most common tasks, including reading data, displaying graphs, doing transformations, estimating a variety of models, and hypothesis testing. These help make RATS an ideal tool for new users and for use in educational settings.
When you use a Wizard, RATS displays the corresponding commands in the editor window so you can actually learn the RATS language through using the Wizards. This also allows you to use the Wizards to build complete programs that can be re-executed again later.
An often-overlooked aspect of econometric research is ensuring that results are reported accurately. RATS addresses this via a powerful report-generation feature for quickly generating accurate tables of reports, which you can export to text or spreadsheet files for direct inclusion in papers and presentations.
High-quality graphs
RATS allows you to create publication-quality time series graphs, scatter plots, and contour graphs.
Programming capabilities
The command-driven language at the heart of the program remains easy to learn and use for simple jobs, but its extensive programming capabilities also allow you to handle much more complex tasks. Features include user-definable procedures and functions, looping and program control instructions, and the ability to create user-defined menus and dialog boxes. With these capabilities, you can automate complex or repetitive tasks, and even write sophisticated menu- and dialog-driven end-user applications.
All versions of RATS also offer "batch mode" operation. You can run jobs several ways: from the command line; by dragging and dropping files; or by double-clicking on a desktop icon. This is especially helpful for users who need to run the same jobs on a regular basis.
RATS is available for Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, and Linux, with complete compatibility across platforms. You can share programs, data files, output, and graph files across any of these platforms with no translation required.
RATS Professional
There are two versions of RATS: the standard version, simply called RATS, and an enhanced version that we call RATS Professional. The two versions are identical in most respects, including interface, execution speed, memory handling, and general capabilities.
However, the Professional version adds the following features not found in the Standard version:
- includes a 64-bit version for use with 64-bit operating systems
- Support for reading databases via ODBC/SQL
- An additional instruction (called X11) implementing the Census Bureaus X11/X12-ARIMA seasonal adjustment routines
- Support for reading and writing FAME data files (requires FAME software)
- Support for reading CRSP data files
- Direct access to the FRED database via an internet connection
- Support for reading and writing Haver DLX format data files
New features in 8.1
We are now taking orders for version 8.1. This update to 8.0 adds several new panel data features, two useful new interface features, several new functions, and improvements to a dozen other instructions. It also ships with several new sets of textbook example programs, replication code for fifteen significant econometrics papers, and many new procedures.
See the
September 2011 RATSletter for more details.
See below for details on the version 8.0 release.
Version 8.0
Below are some of the highlights of this new release:
- Revised manuals:
- Completely revised manuals, including a new 180-page Introduction to RATS
- Updated Reference Manual
- Expanded Users Guide with more coverage of state space and DSGE models, switching models and structural breaks, vector autoregressions and simulations and bootstrapping
- Much more extensive cross-referencing
- Interface improvements:
- New View menu operations provide quick access to information on data series
- Redesigned and expanded toolbar icons
- Many point-and-click wizards have new features and are easier to use
- More control over default arrangement of Input and Output windows
- Data Management:
Making it as easy as possible to get data into the program was a major focus in developing RATS 8. Enhancements include:
- Support for more data formats, including Stata®, EViews® and MATLAB® (support for Excel® 2007 was added with 7.3)
- More flexibility for reading spreadsheet files
- Data wizard: Can now read in subsets of data or compact/expand data to different frequency (previously required typing in instructions directly)
- Can read series into memory from a RATS file by simply dragging-and-dropping them onto the Series Window
- Can copy and paste data series data into Series Edit Windows (handy for copying data from web sites or PDF files)
- READ and WRITE support many more formats, including XLS, XLSX, WKS, and MATLAB
- Improved reports:
Another design goal was to extend the Reports features in RATS to make it even easier for you to translate your results quickly and accurately into publications or other applications:
- Almost all output generated by RATS instructions, such as tables of regression coefficients, can now be reloaded in a report window via the Report Windows menu operation
- Reports can now be reformatted on screen (changing the displayed precision), and then exported or copy-and-pasted in a number of formats
- TeX Support: Reports can now be exported as a TeX tabular or copied to the clipboard in TeX format for pasting in a TeX editor. User-defined reports can be formatted to include TeX mathematical expressions
- Most procedures supplied with RATS now save output as "titled" reports, which can be easily recalled for viewing, exporting, or copying and pasting using the Report Windows operation
- Programming Features:
- You can define much more complex nested variable structures, such as “arrays of arrays of arrays” or “arrays of series of arrays”
- The %IF function accepts a much wider variety of argument types
- Other new features:
- More than thirty functions have been added since version 7.0
- New DUMMY instruction for generating standard dummy, trading day, and intervention variables
- VARIANCES=SPILLOVER option on GARCH for the univariate variance model in a CC or DCC model
- BACKGROUND option on GRPARM for setting the background color of a graph box
- RGF option on SPGRAPH allows you to insert an existing graph file into a matrix of graphs
- Graph windows are now titled using either their header or footer (if available), making it easier to locate a particular window
System requirements
WinRATS
WinRATS runs on all recent versions of Windows, including Windows 7, Vista, and XP, as well as Server 2003 and 2008. It should also run properly on older versions, including Windows 98 and NT. Here are the minimum system requirements for running WinRATS:
- A PC with a Pentium or later processor
- Memory requirements will depend largely on the size of the data sets you need to work with. You will need approximately 1 Megabyte of RAM for every 128,000 data points. The RATS program itself is fairly compact, and only requires about 1 Megabyte of RAM to load
- Hard disk drive with at least 100Mb of free disk space (for a full installation, including all examples, procedures, and documentation)
- CD ROM drive
- Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000, ME, or 98
MacRATS
MacRATS is a "Universal" OS X application, which means that it runs natively on both Intel-based Macs and on older PowerPC-based Macs. Note that it requires version 10.4 or later of OS X:
- Any Macintosh capable for running OS X 10.4 or later
- Both PowerPC and Intel CPUs are supported natively
- Memory requirements will depend largely on the size of the data sets you need to work with. You will need approximately 1 Megabyte of RAM for every 128,000 data points. The RATS program itself is fairly compact, and only requires about 1 Megabyte of RAM to load
- Hard disk drive with at least 100Mb of free disk space (for a full installation, including all examples, procedures, and documentation)
- CD-ROM drive
UNIX and Linux
RATS is available for most UNIX-based workstations, including Sun, HP, and IBM systems. We also support Intel-based PCs running Linux. (It is also possible to compile and run our UNIX version on Macintosh OS X systems, but most Mac users will prefer to use MacRATS, which is written specifically for the Mac OS X operating system).
The UNIX and Linux versions support essentially all of the features offered in the Windows and Macintosh versions, including the complete interactive mode "RATS Editor" interface. In order to use the interactive interface, your system must support X Windows, and the Motif libraries must be available. If these are not available, the program can only be run in batch mode.
- Processor: virtually any CPU running UNIX; Intel Pentium-based or later PC running Linux; a Macintosh running Mac OS X (PowerPC or Intel CPU) an ANSI-standard C/C++ compiler (optional for Linux)
- X Windows and Motif libraries (not required for batch mode operation)
- CD ROM drive
- Disk Space: 100Mb of available space for a full installation
- Memory Requirements: depends largely on the size of the data sets that will be used
Screenshots
To view larger versions of the screenshots, click on the images below to view in a new tab.
RATS editor
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The Time Series wizard menu
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The ARCH/GARCH wizard dialog box
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Prices
To order RATS & CATS software, please contact our sales teams by email: info@timberlake.co.uk, call: +44 (0)20 8697 3377 or fill out an online order form.
Additional information
Related software
CATS for RATS
CATS (Cointegration Analysis of Time Series) is a set of cointegration analysis procedures written by Jonathan G. Dennis, Katarina Juselius, Søren Johansen and Henrik Hansen of the University of Copenhagen for use with our RATS software.
CATS provides a wide variety of tools for analyzing your data and choosing and testing a cointegration model. The program is almost completely menu- and dialog-driven. You begin by running a short RATS program to define your data and load the CATS procedure. This adds several CATS menus to the RATS menu bar, and you perform your analysis by selecting operations from these menus. CATS will prompt you for any needed input.
Click here for more information about CATS and the 2.0 release.
