Hi all, I am trying to use the user-contributed synth to estimate with synthetic control method. I am running Stata 16 on Windows 10. This is the smoking.dta provided by the authors as an example dataset:
Code:
* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input float(cigsale beer lnincome retprice age15to24)
 89.8    .         .  39.6  .1788618
 95.4    .         .  42.7 .17992784
101.1    .  9.498476  42.3  .1809939
102.9    .  9.550107  42.1 .18205994
108.2    .  9.537163  43.1   .183126
111.7    .  9.540031  46.6 .18419206
116.2    .  9.591908  50.4  .1852581
117.1    .  9.617496  50.1  .1863242
  123    .  9.654072  55.1 .18739022
121.4    .   9.64918  56.8  .1884563
123.2    .  9.612194  60.6 .18952234
119.6    .  9.609594  68.8 .18584223
119.1    .   9.59758  73.1  .1821621
116.3    .  9.626769  84.4   .178482
  113   18  9.671621  90.8  .1748019
114.5 18.7  9.703193    99  .1711218
116.3 19.3   9.74595   103  .1674417
  114 19.4  9.762092   110 .16376157
112.1 19.4   9.78177 114.4 .16008146
105.6 19.4  9.802527 122.3 .15640135
108.6 20.1   9.81429 139.1 .15272124
107.9 20.1   9.81926 144.4         .
109.1 20.4  9.845286 172.2         .
108.5 20.3   9.85216 176.2         .
107.1   21  9.879334 154.6         .
102.6 20.6  9.924404 155.1         .
101.4   21  9.940027 158.3         .
104.9 20.8   9.93727 167.4         .
106.2    .         . 180.5         .
100.7    .         . 195.6         .
 96.2    .         . 270.7         .
100.3    .         .  36.7 .16900676
104.1    .         .  38.8 .16995385
103.9    .  9.464514  44.1 .17090096
  108    .   9.55683  45.1 .17184804
109.7    .  9.542286  45.5 .17279513
114.8    .  9.514094  48.6 .17374223
119.1    .  9.558153  50.9 .17468932
122.6    .  9.590923  52.6  .1756364
127.3    .  9.657238  56.5  .1765835
126.5    .  9.633533  58.4  .1775306
131.8    .  9.573803  61.5  .1784777
128.7    .  9.593041  64.7  .1750111
127.4    .    9.5737  72.1 .17154454
  128    .  9.593053    82 .16807795
123.1 17.9   9.65044  93.6 .16461137
125.8 18.1  9.675527  98.5  .1611448
  126 18.7  9.705939 103.6  .1576782
122.3   19  9.705574   113 .15421164
121.5 18.9  9.721532 119.9 .15074505
118.3   19   9.73737 127.7 .14727847
113.1 19.9  9.736311 141.2  .1438119
116.8 19.9  9.743068 146.5         .
  126   20  9.788629 177.3         .
113.8 19.7  9.785142 179.9         .
108.8 19.7  9.813631 168.1         .
  113 19.5   9.86446 167.3         .
110.7 20.1  9.885234 167.1         .
108.7 19.8  9.883107 181.3         .
109.5    .         . 187.3         .
104.8    .         . 206.9         .
 99.4    .         . 279.3         .
  123    .         .  38.8 .17815833
  121    .         .  39.7 .17929636
123.5    .  9.930814  39.9  .1804344
124.4    .  9.955092  39.9  .1815724
126.7    .  9.947999  41.9 .18271044
127.1    .  9.937167    45 .18384847
  128    .  9.976858  48.3  .1849865
126.4    .   10.0027    49 .18612453
126.1    . 10.045565  58.7 .18726255
121.9    . 10.054688  60.1  .1884006
120.2    .  10.03784  62.1  .1895386
118.6    . 10.028626  66.4 .18553706
115.4    .  10.01253  72.8  .1815355
110.8    . 10.031737  84.9 .17753394
104.8   25  10.07536  94.9  .1735324
102.8   24 10.099703    98 .16953082
 99.7 24.7 10.127267 104.4 .16552927
 97.5 24.1   10.1343 103.9  .1615277
 90.1 23.6 10.141663 117.4 .15752615
 82.4 23.7 10.142313 126.4  .1535246
 77.8 23.8 10.141623 163.8 .14952303
 68.7 22.3 10.110714 186.8         .
 67.5 21.3  10.11494 201.9         .
 63.4 20.8 10.098497 205.1         .
 58.6 20.1 10.099508 190.3         .
 56.4 19.7 10.155916 195.1         .
 54.5 19.1 10.178637 197.9         .
 53.8 19.5  10.17519 200.3         .
 52.3    .         . 207.8         .
 47.2    .         . 224.9         .
 41.6    .         . 351.2         .
124.8    .         .  29.4 .19095023
125.5    .         .  31.1  .1916476
134.3    .  9.805548  31.2 .19234496
137.9    .  9.848413  32.7 .19304232
132.8    .  9.840451  38.1  .1937397
  131    .  9.828461  41.7 .19443706
134.2    .  9.858913  44.8  .1951344
end
Everything runs fine unless I specify the nested option. If I do, I get the error message that I show below:

Code:
. synth cigsale beer(1984(1)1988) lnincome retprice age15to24 cigsale(1988) cigsale(1980) cigsale(1975), trunit(3) trperiod(1989) nested

Nested optimization requested
Starting nested optimization module
__000018 not found
r(111);
I have updated my version of Stata and my ado files, but that did not solve the issue. Before contacting the authors directly, I would like to know if anyone else has encountered this issue and knows of a solution.

Thanks!