That accessiblity entails the next argument, which is the diversity of packages. On the contrary, R is open-source (meaning that anyone can see the code, contribute to it and distribute it) and the code behind the functions you use is easily visible with just one click. I have already heard one of my professor complaining about the fact that Stata is a “black box” (not like those in planes but more like an opaque system). Whatever your operating system, you can download base R and every package you want and it won’t cost any money. That’s the big advantage of R: it is completely free. I don’t know if this happens often or not, maybe you will never suffer from it, but it would be just stupid to have to suffer from a hacking just because the statistical software was not free. Therefore, some cracked versions circulate between students and it is well-known that when downloading illegally softwares (and movies, TV shows, etc.), there’s always a risk of being infected by a virus. However, in my experience, I know that we frequently want to work home or in group on some projects and therefore we need Stata on our personal laptop. That may seem a false argument for some people, especially because in many universities, students have freely access to Stata. However, I believe that what I have made with Stata corresponds to most Master students’ experiences, e.g. data cleaning and treatment, data analysis, econometrics, etc. Before I start, please note that I have been using Stata occasionally for about a year whereas I spend much more time on R so I may forget some features that Stata has and that I am not aware of. Before going into the details about studying economics with R, it makes sense to explain why you should use R compared to Stata.
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