st: Panel Data and model specification

[maaaa saaaaa <tko778@gmail.com>]

Sorry to ask questions which may be obvious to many, but I am just
starting out with Stata and econometrics so if anyone could help me I
would really appreciate it.

Basically I need to look at the relationship between inequality and
technological change, and am using panel data consisting of a measure
of technological change (technology as a % of GDP) and gini index
statistics for a sample of countries annually over a 30 year period.

I am only interested in seeing if technological change affects
inequality so technology is my only dependent variable. When using
xtreg to run a fixed effects regression my Prob>F value is high so is
it fair to say that I cant reject the hypothesis that the coefficient
is 0 and therefore it is likely that technological change does not
affect growth?

Is it ok that I have not included other variables in the regression? I
am not really concerned in finding all the factors that influence
inequality, only in seeing if technology plays any role. So is my
regression ok as it is?

Also, can anyone give me any idea of whether I should be using logged
values for my data? I see this done a lot but am unsure when it should
be used.

Sorry again for the 'newbie' questions, and thank you for any help!
*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/