st: gmm problem with e(sample) and xtinstruments

[lucie gadenne <gadenne@pse.ens.fr>]

I'm new to using gmm with panel style instrument, and I have the
following problem.
When I run the regression :
"gmm (y - {xb:x1 x2}- {bo}),  instruments( x2) xtinstruments(z,
lags(0,2)) winitial (xt L)"
I get standard estimation results, except that I am told my number of
observations  is N, where N=number of observations in my dataset.
This shouldn't be as some of my observations (roughly 10%) have by
construction no value for the instrument z, whatever the period.
My understanding is that the gmm command should drop the observations
for which none of the xtinstruments are available, and I do want to
drop them.
I then type :
"count if e(sample)"
I get 0 observations. If however I type:
"count if !e(sample)"
I have all my observations.
And finally "dis e(N)" gives me N, the total number of observations.
So I have two questions:
_why doesn't gmm exclude the observations for which none of the lags
of the instrument is available?
_why is e(sample) not marking any observations as part of my estimation sample?

Thanks a lot for your help,
Lucie




--
Lucie Gadenne
PhD Student
Paris School of Economics

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