st: Merging two data sets and matching on distance

[Sophie Jensen <thorns.n.roses@gmail.com>]

Dear Stata users,

I'm trying to match two data sets together using LEA code (in England
each area has a local education authority (LEA) that is responsible
for providing funding and money for certain schools in the area). The
problem is the data sets are slightly different and they have
different numbers of observations for each variable. I was wondering
how I would go about matching using one of the common variable (the
problem is I'm not sure that all of the inputs are not exactly the
same but almost similar.)

The other thing I wanted to ask was how I would construct area space
in Stata using a northing and easting points from each particular
school. I would like to do two things with this, the first is after
having found the radius area around each school, construct similar
areas around each lea with wage data and then match the average wage
in that area with school radii areas - does this make sense? My goal
is therefore to find the average wage around each school. I would like
to do this for several distances around the school.

So far to create the school areas, I have used pythagoras theorem to
generate the areas. So far the code I have used has been succesful in
creating a radius around the school.. gen school_distance=(((sch_
northing-lea)^2) + ((sch_easting - lea)^2))^0.5 .... but for some
reason the rest doesnt work: gen within60km=0
replace within60km=1 if ((((sch_easting-outwage_male)^2) +
(sch_northing-outwage_male)^2)^0.5)<60 . I want to match schools to an
average wages in the radius around each school.

Related to this, I was also wondering if I could find out how many
schools are within each radius of a school to determine competition...
is there a way I could translate this onto a map, or a point?


I hope you've understood what I've said ( I know its very confusing!)
and can help out. Also, I am using Stata 10 and 11.


I would appreciate any help you can offer.

Thanks a lot
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