{"id":1550,"date":"2022-01-07T10:34:28","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T15:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kaichen.work\/?p=1550"},"modified":"2023-05-15T20:05:18","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T00:05:18","slug":"my-thoughts-on-python","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaichen.work\/?p=1550","title":{"rendered":"My thoughts on Python for accounting research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">There is a temptation for accounting PhD students to invest in learning Python. However, I would recommend that accounting PhD students focus more on SAS + Stata than on Python in their first year for a few practical and technical reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>While Python may seem trendy, its user base in accounting research is still relatively small. Research often involves co-authorship. If the research code can only be understood by one person in a research team, it can be counterproductive.<\/li>\n<li>Due to the limited usage of Python among researchers, Python users cannot take full advantage of the many ready-to-use code written in SAS, which has a larger user base.<\/li>\n<li>Debugging in Python is more challenging compared to commercial software like SAS and Stata. While freeware may sound appealing, I have always found that I end up spending more time when using freeware, as it typically lacks detailed and excellent help documentation.<\/li>\n<li>Similar to Stata, Python currently has limitations in manipulating large datasets, as it is constrained by the the computer&#8217;s memory size. If you anticipate working with mega datasets such as intra-day bond\/stock transaction data, using Python can be a pain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">SAS + Stata is a solid solution that I advocate for. I use SAS for SQL and Stata for all other tasks. Python is well-suited for specific research topics such as textual analysis. If you decide to invest in learning Python, you can rely on the following learning resources:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Python Tutorial on the official Python website (<a title=\"https:\/\/can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.com%2Fv3%2F__https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.python.org%2F3.10%2Ftutorial%2Findex.html__%3B!!LkSTlj0I!Bw-SknpzrviFCADu5flzvb7ZMO4urmp0Bwa2US5Ak7giLAI4L6tXuNpt9-bkwdaEmp7d1MOc4_jrEBU8GRKs2zIj%24&amp;data=04%7C01%7Ckachen%40wlu.ca%7Cfbfd2d3ffca74bc7271808d9cf43e102%7Cb45a5125b29846bc8b89ea5a7343fde8%7C1%7C0%7C637768712726478037%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&amp;sdata=ZLQsdqeZ4gCiW%2BZ%2FasYKdciVdz6mlIp0tnLBsS7AW6M%3D&amp;reserved=0\" contenteditable=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/docs.python.org\/3.10\/tutorial\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/docs.python.org\/3.10\/tutorial\/index.html<\/a>) is an easy and quick read.<\/li>\n<li>There are numerous Python courses available on Udemy (<a title=\"https:\/\/can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.com%2Fv3%2F__https%3A%2F%2Fwww.udemy.com__%3B!!LkSTlj0I!Bw-SknpzrviFCADu5flzvb7ZMO4urmp0Bwa2US5Ak7giLAI4L6tXuNpt9-bkwdaEmp7d1MOc4_jrEBU8GdiPyDFn%24&amp;data=04%7C01%7Ckachen%40wlu.ca%7Cfbfd2d3ffca74bc7271808d9cf43e102%7Cb45a5125b29846bc8b89ea5a7343fde8%7C1%7C0%7C637768712726478037%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&amp;sdata=A4Qht0KQ%2BZJw357riafrUmv3qbKEKfsNtfdS8VKcLdo%3D&amp;reserved=0\" contenteditable=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/www.udemy.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.udemy.com<\/a>), often offered at discounted prices of $13 per course.<\/li>\n<li>An excellent methodology article authored by Vic Anand, Khrystyna Bochkay, Roman Chychyla and Andrew Leone (2020), &#8220;Using Python for Text Analysis in Accounting Research&#8221;, Foundations and Trends\u00ae in Accounting: Vol. 14: No. 3\u20134, pp 128\u2013359. <a href=\"https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1561\/1400000062\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1561\/1400000062<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is a temptation for accounting PhD students to invest in learning Python. However, I would recommend that accounting PhD students focus more on SAS + Stata than on Python in their first year for a few practical and technical &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaichen.work\/?p=1550\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,10],"tags":[16,15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaichen.work\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaichen.work\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaichen.work\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaichen.work\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaichen.work\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1550"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaichen.work\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1966,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaichen.work\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550\/revisions\/1966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaichen.work\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaichen.work\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaichen.work\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}