st: Using xtmixed with a regional-level DV

[Atul Teckchandani <atulteck@hotmail.com>]

Hi,
 
I am trying to do a regional-level analysis predicting the # of new firms created in a given region with the key independent variables being counts of six different types of voluntary associations in that region (e.g., business association, religious association, civic association, etc.).
I also have data on the level of diversity of the members in each type of voluntary association, and on the typical level of participation of members in each type of voluntary association. The diversity and participation data is for all associations of a specific type (i.e., all business associations have the same diversity value and participation value, regardless of region where they are located).
 
I would like to show how the diversity and participation values also affect the DV. Based on my (limited) understanding, I believe I am looking to do multilevel modeling. The issue I am facing is that all of the multilevel modeling examples I have found have an individual-level DV with individual-level data as the “fixed effects” portion and then incorporate regional-level information as part of the “random effects.”
 
However, I want to do the opposite. I am predicting something at the regional-level, but also have data at the association level.
I believe my fixed-effects equation would be as follows:
xtmixed newfirms biz_assoc religious_assoc civic_assoc …
 
What would my random-effects equation look like when using the xtmixed command with this type of data?
 
Thank you in advance for the assistance!
 
Sincerely,
 
Atul Teckchandani
Assistant Professor of Management
Mihaylo College of Business and Economics
California State University, Fullerton 		 	   		  
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