st: Dropping non-consecutive observations in a panel

[Lynnae Ruberg <lruberg@OxfamAmerica.org>]

Dear Statalist,

I'm relatively new to STATA, so your patience is appreciated.

I'm using STATA/SE 11.0 for Windows to analyze a panel data set. I -xtset- time and id for the panel. I would like to use only the panels that have unbroken observations across time - i.e. if id 1 was observed in time periods 1, 2, and 4, I don't want to use it, but if it was observed in 2, 3, and 4, then I do.

When I run -xtdescribe- I see that 98% of my data have an unbroken pattern (like the latter example above). Is there a straightforward way of telling STATA to only use these & drop (or simply ignore) the rest? Alternatively, is there a way to browse the data according to the pattern it has in -xtdescribe-?

Here's the work-around I've come up with for identifying skipped ids, but I'd love to know if there's any easier way of approaching it.

sort id(time)
by id: gen first_time=time[1]
by id: gen last_time=time[_N]
by id: egen a=count(time)
gen b=(last_time-first_time)+1
gen c=b-a

id	time	first_time	last_time	a	b	c	
1	1	1     	4	      4	4	0
1	2	1	      4      	4	4	0	
1	3	1	      4	      4	4	0	
1	4	1      	4	      4	4	0	
2	2	2     	4	      3	3	0	
2	3	2     	4	      3	3	0	
2	4	2     	4	      3	3	0	
3	1	1     	4	      3	4	1	
3	3	1     	4	      3	4	1	
3	4	1     	4	      3	4	1	

In id==3, time period 2 is skipped; this is "caught" by the different between the count of time periods per id (variable a) and the total number of time periods that id is observed - if an id isn't skipped, the difference will be 0. I'd use -if c==0- in my analysis. Doing it this way identifies 97% of the data as unbroken (so it's not producing the same result as -xtdescribe-, which I can't figure out).

If there is an easier/more accurate way of doing this, I'd love to know how.

Many thanks,
Lynnae
-------------------------------------------
Lynnae E. Ruberg
Technical Intern
Community Finance Department
Oxfam America

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