Stata gsem
The gsem command fits a SEM. It is a generalized version of sem.
Contents
Usage
gsem is a generalization of sem that can accommodate ordinal and binary variables. For example, given an ordinal Y, try:
. gsem (X -> x1 x2 x3) (Z -> z1 z2 z3) (Y -> y1 y2 y3, oprobit) (Y <- X Z), noanchor variance(X@1 Z@1 e.Y@1) noconstant
Note that the only modification to the sem example is the insertion of the oprobit option in the model of Y.
Comparing the output of the two, the only visual changes will be...
the inclusion of cuts of Y in terms of y1 through y3
the exclusion of variances for the ordinal observed variables y1 through y3
Note that lavaan estimates latent variances whereas gsem fits data to a model using maximum likelihood. While regression coefficients can be comparable, the methods are fundamentally not.