Trying to run regression discontinuity with rdrobust: getting an error. How to solve it?

[Bruno Hoepers]

I have a dataset with electoral information from Brazilian municipalities. Two of the variables in the dataset are incumb_vs (i.e., incumbent's vote share, the dep. variable) and margin_victory_08_16 (i.e., margin of victory, the running variable). I'm trying to run a very simple RD model: rdrobust incumb_vs margin_victory_08_16. However, I'm getting the following error message: "c() should be set within the range of margin_victory_08_16". I don't know what the message means and I don't know how to overcome the error. Could someone help? Thanks.

* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input float(incumb_vs margin_victory_08_16)
 .4463837   .1072326
        .  .06513521
 .2757941   .4484118
 .7278874   .4694826
        .   .1651098
 .4189983   .1620034
 .3696054 .018803954
        1          1
        . .002683848
        .   .2456478
 .5187292  .03745845
        .  .15589768
        .   .5348935
        .  .19441482
  .647213  .29442596
        .  .09627774
.56946826  .13893652
        .  .14316547
 .9585735   .9171469
        .  .13237998
        .   .1262584
 .3655428    .107598
 .4486495  .10270107
        .  .06396064
        .    .255861
.52742016  .05484033
        .   .3577933
.19271736  .09784493
.05049327  .04607087
        .  .11850062
        .  .11329326
 .3453006  .14553154
        .   .5612041
  .626775  .25354996
        .   .4624514
 .6529631   .3475192
        .  .06402877
 .4378324  .11344722
        .  .20089284
        .  .04649273
        .  .02495596
        .   .2476136
 .0914439   .4831984
 .7541108   .5082216
        .  .03328356
 .4611361  .13532057
        . .017568856
 .4515343 .019608885
.59505874   .4103114
        .  .05767663
.21464506 .009585947
        .   .0386377
 .3341631 .070450604
 .4657904  .06841931
        .  .02782464
        .   .3176471
 .4657154  .06856918
        .    .304785
        .  .42265385
        . .016479075
        .  .04418364
        .  .28573948
        .  .03994054
        .  .11620066
 .5002291  .08930752
        .  .11472383
        .   .2721927
 .3734521  .16268027
 .3643772   .1526692
 .3518482  .03570038
        .    .449583
        .  .52526426
 .7604086  .52081716
        .  .22312585
.38770685   .2245863
 .6590587   .3181174
        .  .01237905
        .   .3734111
 .3984553  .20308948
        .  .18501386
        .  .24438795
        .    .231325
.12899198  .08105856
        .  .03966752
        .  .17668983
        .  .05595085
 .3665719  .26685628
        .   .3366337
        .  .12625697
        .   .3997429
        . .066535145
.52088904  .04177809
        . .067629874
 .2427203   .1150383
.24732536 .003225297
        . .013636038
 .7063679   .4127358
        .  .18246344
 .4816661 .036667824
.16857342    .571562
end

[Recep Taskin]

?

[Rich Goldstein]

if this is the command used:

rdrobust incumb_vs margin_victory_08_16

then it won't run because the default cutoff is 0 and that is not within the range of your data - you need a cutoff within the range of your data or there is no discontinuity so use the "c()" option; see

help rdrobust