What Will I Learn?

Longitudinal or panel data are multi-dimensional Information involving measurements over time. Such data are analyzed using dynamic model. Dynamic models have become increasingly popular due to their ability to take into account both short and long term effects and unobserved heterogeneity between economic agents in the estimation of the parameter estimates. Stata is very specialized in handling dynamic data. this training course provides an overview of existing dynamic data analysis techniques. Participants will be taken through a series of illustrative examples, with a theoretical and applied overview. Recent issues in dynamic panel data analysis will also be covered. The course concludes by addressing the issues of; i) non-stationarity in long panels, where the time series (as opposed to cross-sectional) characteristic of the data dominates; and ii) cointegration. The training will pay particular attention (using a combination of both official Stata and user written dynamic panel data analysis commands) to: i) evaluating which specific econometric methodology/specification is more appropriate for the analysis in hand; ii) selection of the appropriate instruments; iii) rigorous post estimation diagnostic/specification testing; and iv) the problems of inference resulted from weak-instrument bias, instrument-proliferation bias and small-sample bias. Special attention will also be given to the interpretation and presentation of results.