Re: st: Newbie question on creating variable

[Eliot Mason <emason@bus.wisc.edu>]

since you're using time series data, use the time series functions in STATA

gen diff=gdp[_n-5] will give a lag of 5 observations.

You may want to use something like  "if country==country[_n-1] then gen 
diff=gdp[_n-1]" so that the lag stays within the country code.

This would give you:
countrycode           year             gdp      Diff
BAN                   1960             65               .
BAN                   1965             75               65
BAN                   1970             85               75
CAN                   1960             25               .
CAN                   1965             35               25
CAN                   1970             45               35

Eliot Mason

At 01:14 PM 3/1/2004, you wrote:

> countrycode           year             gdp
> BAN                   1960             65
> BAN                   1965             75
> BAN                   1970             85
> CAN                   1960             25
> CAN                   1965             35
> CAN                   1970             45
>
> Dear Stata users,
> Lets say I have the above data set. I want  to create a variable which 
> measures the difference between the gdp in year 1970 and gdp in 1965 for 
> each country. That is if "diff" is the new variable it would be diff = 
> gdp(1970)-gdp (1965) for each country.
> I am a new user and already spent hours on this. I would much appreciate 
> your help.
> Thanks in advance
> AmBush
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