Re: st: simple question

[Richard Williams <Richard.A.Williams.5@ND.edu>]

At 03:17 PM 6/2/2004 -0400, Suzy wrote:
> Hi, I have continuous variables that are coded 99999 or 77777 for unknown 
> or refused to answer. How do I handle this? I don't want to treat them as 
> missing, if possible.
> Thank you.
> Suzy
Not a simple question at all!  How you handle Missing Data depends on many 
factors.  I review a lot of the issues and more conventional options at

http://www.nd.edu/~rwilliam/stats2/l12.pdf

Unless you're willing and able to be fairly high tech about it (e.g. use 
advanced imputation techniques), I think listwise deletion tends to work as 
well as anything (even though the handout describes several other options).

If you search the archives, you'll find some recent discussions of missing 
data issues.  I think the feeling was that Stata (at least with its 
built-in routines) is a little on the weak side when it comes to advanced 
methods for handling MD.

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