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Introduction to Econometrics, 3e (Stock)
Chapter 10 Regression with Panel Data
1) The notation for panel data is (Xit, Yit), i = 1, ..., n and t = 1, ..., T because
A) we take into account that the entities included in the panel change over time and are replaced by
others.
B) the X's represent the observed effects and the Y the omitted fixed effects.
C) there are n entities and T time periods.
D) n has to be larger than T for the OLS estimator to exist.
Answer: C
3) Consider the special panel case where T = 2. If some of the omitted variables, which you hope to
capture in the changes analysis, in fact change over time, then the estimator on the included change
regressor
A) will be unbiased only when allowing for heteroskedastic-robust standard errors.
B) may still be unbiased.
C) will only be unbiased in large samples.
D) will always be unbiased.
Answer: B
5) In the Fixed Effects regression model, you should exclude one of the binary variables for the entities
when an intercept is present in the equation
A) because one of the entities is always excluded.
B) because there are already too many coefficients to estimate.
C) to allow for some changes between entities to take place.
D) to avoid perfect multicollinearity.
Answer: D
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6) In the Fixed Effects regression model, using (n – 1) binary variables for the entities, the coefficient of the
binary variable indicates
A) the level of the fixed effect of the ith entity.
B) will be either 0 or 1.
C) the difference in fixed effects between the ith and the first entity.
D) the response in the dependent variable to a percentage change in the binary variable.
Answer: C
8) With Panel Data, regression software typically uses an "entity-demeaned" algorithm because
A) the OLS formula for the slope in the linear regression model contains deviations from means already.
B) there are typically too many time periods for the regression package too handle.
C) the number of estimates to calculate can become extremely large when there are a large number of
entities.
D) deviations from means sum up to zero.
Answer: C
9) The "before and after" specification, binary variable specification, and "entity-demeaned" specification
produce identical OLS estimates
A) as long as there are observations for more than two time periods.
B) if you use the heteroskedasticity-robust option in your regression program.
C) for the case of more than 100 observations.
D) as long as T = 2 and the intercept is excluded from the "before and after" specification.
Answer: D
10) In the Fixed Time Effects regression model, you should exclude one of the binary variables for the
time periods when an intercept is present in the equation
A) because the first time period must always excluded from your data set.
B) because there are already too many coefficients to estimate.
C) to avoid perfect multicollinearity.
D) to allow for some changes between time periods to take place.
Answer: C
11) If you included both time and entity fixed effects in the regression model which includes a constant,
then
A) one of the explanatory variables needs to be excluded to avoid perfect multicollinearity.
B) you can use the "before and after" specification even for T > 2.
C) you must exclude one of the entity binary variables and one of the time binary variables for the OLS
estimator to exist.
D) the OLS estimator no longer exists.
Answer: C
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12) Consider estimating the effect of the beer tax on the fatality rate, using time and state fixed effect for
the Northeast Region of the United States (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut
and Rhode Island) for the period 1991-2001. If Beer Tax was the only explanatory variable, how many
coefficients would you need to estimate, excluding the constant?
A) 18
B) 17
C) 7
D) 11
Answer: B
13) Consider the regression example from your textbook, which estimates the effect of beer taxes on
fatality rates across the 48 contiguous U.S. states. If beer taxes were set nationally by the federal
government rather than by the states, then
A) it would not make sense to use state fixed effect.
B) you can test state fixed effects using homoskedastic-only standard errors.
C) the OLS estimator will be biased.
D) you should not use time fixed effects since beer taxes are the same at a point in time across states.
Answer: D
14) In the panel regression analysis of beer taxes on traffic deaths, the estimation period is 1982-1988 for
the 48 contiguous U.S. states. To test for the significance of time fixed effects, you should calculate the F-
statistic and compare it to the critical value from your Fq,∞ distribution, where q equals
A) 6.
B) 7.
C) 48.
D) 53.
Answer: A
15) When you add state fixed effects to a simple regression model for U.S. states over a certain time
period, and the regression R2 increases significantly, then it is safe to assume that
A) the included explanatory variables, other than the state fixed effects, are unimportant.
B) state fixed effects account for a large amount of the variation in the data.
C) the coefficients on the other included explanatory variables will not change.
D) time fixed effects are unimportant.
Answer: B
16) Time Fixed Effects regression are useful in dealing with omitted variables
A) even if you only have a cross-section of data available.
B) if these omitted variables are constant across entities but vary over time.
C) when there are more than 100 observations.
D) if these omitted variables are constant across entities but not over time.
Answer: B
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17) Indicate for which of the following examples you cannot use Entity and Time Fixed Effects: a
regression of
A) OECD unemployment rates on unemployment insurance generosity for the period 1980-2006 (annual
data).
B) the (log of) earnings on the number of years of education, using the Current Population Survey of
60,000 households for March 2006.
C) the per capita income level in Canadian Provinces on provincial population growth rates, using
decade averages for 1960, 1970, and 1980.
D) the risk premium of 75 stocks on the market premium for the years 1998-2006.
Answer: B
19) (Requires Appendix material) When the fifth assumption in the Fixed Effects regression
(cov (uit, uis Xit, Xis) = 0 for t ≠ s) is violated, then
A) using heteroskedastic-robust standard errors is not sufficient for correct statistical inference when
using OLS.
B) the OLS estimator does not exist.
C) you can use the simple homoskedasticity-only standard errors calculated in your regression package.
D) you cannot use fixed time effects in your estimation.
Answer: A
20) In the panel regression analysis of beer taxes on traffic deaths, the estimation period is 1982-1988 for
the 48 contiguous U.S. states. To test for the significance of entity fixed effects, you should calculate the F-
statistic and compare it to the critical value from your Fq,∞ distribution, where q equals
A) 48.
B) 54.
C) 7.
D) 47.
Answer: D
21) The main advantage of using panel data over cross sectional data is that it
A) gives you more observations.
B) allows you to analyze behavior across time but not across entities.
C) allows you to control for some types of omitted variables without actually observing them.
D) allows you to look up critical values in the standard normal distribution.
Answer: C
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22) One of the following is a regression example for which Entity and Time Fixed Effects could be used: a
study of the effect of
A) minimum wages on teenage employment using annual data from the 48 contiguous states in 2006 .
B) various performance statistics on the (log of) salaries of baseball pitchers in the American League and
the National League in 2005 and 2006.
C) inflation and inflationary expectations on unemployment rates in the United States, using quarterly
data from 1960-2006.
D) drinking alcohol on the GPA of 150 students at your university, controlling for incoming SAT scores.
Answer: B
23) Consider a panel regression of unemployment rates for the G7 countries (United States, Canada,
France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Japan) on a set of explanatory variables for the time period
1980-2000 (annual data). If you included entity and time fixed effects, you would need to specify the
following number of binary variables:
A) 21.
B) 6.
C) 28.
D) 26.
Answer: D
24) A pattern in the coefficients of the time fixed effects binary variables may reveal the following in a
study of the determinants of state unemployment rates using panel data:
A) macroeconomic effects, which affect all states equally in a given year.
B) attitude differences towards unemployment between states.
C) there is no economic information that can be retrieved from these coefficients.
D) regional effects, which affect all states equally, as long as they are a member of that region.
Answer: A
25) In the panel regression analysis of beer taxes on traffic deaths, the estimation period is 1982-1988 for
the 48 contiguous U.S. states. To test for the significance of time fixed effects, you should calculate the F-
statistic and compare it to the critical value from your Fq,∞ distribution, which equals (at the 5% level)
A) 2.01.
B) 2.10.
C) 2.80.
D) 2.64.
Answer: B
26) Assume that for the T = 2 time periods case, you have estimated a simple regression in changes model
and found a statistically significant positive intercept. This implies
A) a negative mean change in the LHS variable in the absence of a change in the RHS variable since you
subtract the earlier period from the later period
B) that the panel estimation approach is flawed since differencing the data eliminates the constant
(intercept) in a regression
C) a positive mean change in the LHS variable in the absence of a change in the RHS variable
D) that the RHS variable changed between the two subperiods
Answer: C
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27) HAC standard errors and clustered standard errors are related as follows:
A) they are the same
B) clustered standard errors are one type of HAC standard error
C) they are the same if the data is differenced
D) clustered standard errors are the square root of HAC standard errors
Answer: B
30) If Xit is correlated with Xis for different values of s and t, then
A) Xit is said to be autocorrelated
B) the OLS estimator cannot be computed
C) statistical inference cannot proceed in a standard way even if clustered standard errors are used
D) this is not of practical importance since these correlations are typically weak in applications
Answer: A
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10.2 Essays and Longer Questions
1) A study, published in 1993, used U.S. state panel data to investigate the relationship between
minimum wages and employment of teenagers. The sample period was 1977 to 1989 for all 50 states. The
author estimated a model of the following type:
where E is the employment to population ratio of teenagers, M is the nominal minimum wage, and W is
average hourly earnings in manufacturing. In addition, other explanatory variables, such as the adult
unemployment rate, the teenage population share, and the teenage enrollment rate in school, were
included.
(a) Name some of the factors that might be picked up by time and state fixed effects.
(b) The author decided to use eight regional dummy variables instead of the 49 state dummy variables.
What is the implicit assumption made by the author? Could you test for its validity? How?
(c) The results, using time and region fixed effects only, were as follows:
affected by this?
Answer:
(a) Time effects will pick up the effect of omitted variables that are common to all 50 states at a given
point in time. Federal fiscal and monetary variables, exchange rate and U.S. terms of trade movements,
aggregate business cycle developments, etc., are candidates here. State fixed effects will include variables
that are slowly changing over time within a specific state such as attitudes toward employment or labor
force participation, state specific labor market policies, industrial and labor force composition, etc.
(b) The implicit assumption by the author is that the coefficients on the state fixed effects are identical
within a region but differ between regions. Since these coefficients imply linear restrictions, they can be
tested using the F-test.
(c) Consider a ten percent increase in minimum wages, say from $5 to $5.50 with constant average hourly
earnings. This corresponds to a ten percent increase in relative minimum wages. The resulting decrease in
the teenage to population ratio is 1.8 or almost 2 percent. The regression explains roughly 73 percent of
the employment to population ratio of teenagers during the period of 1977 to 1989 for the 50 U.S. states.
(d) This choice in effect drops the i subscript from the minimum wage, since there is no variation by state.
The original equation then reads
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Furthermore, since the federal minimum wage is constant across the nine regions at a point in time, it is
absorbed by the time effects. The coefficient on the relative minimum wage therefore reflects regional
variations in average hourly earning in manufacturing. The minimum wage only enters indirectly as
changes in the federal minimum wage since there are different relative levels to average hourly earnings
in each region.
2) You want to find the determinants of suicide rates in the United States. To investigate the issue, you
collect state level data for ten years. Your first idea, suggested to you by one of your peers from Southern
California, is that the annual amount of sunshine must be important. Stacking the data and using no fixed
effects, you find no significant relationship between suicide rates and this variable. (This is good news for
the people of Seattle.) However, sorting the suicide rate data from highest to lowest, you notice that those
states with the lowest population density are dominating in the highest suicide rate category. You run
another regression, without fixed effect, and find a highly significant relationship between the two
variables. Even adding some economic variables, such as state per capita income or the state
unemployment rate, does not lower the t-statistic for the population density by much. Adding fixed
entity and time effects, however, results in an insignificant coefficient for population density.
(a) What do you think is the cause for this change in significance? Which fixed effect is primarily
responsible? Does this result imply that population density does not matter?
(b) Speculate as to what happens to the coefficients of the economic variables when the fixed effects are
included. Use this example to make clear what factors entity and time fixed effects pick up.
(c) What other factors might play a role?
Answer:
(a) Population density only changes slowly over time, hence state effects will pick up the influence of this
variable. This does not imply that population is of no relevance. However, there are other omitted
variables in this regression, such as religious and cultural attitudes towards suicide, that are also
captured by the state effects, and these may also be correlated with population density.
(b) Since there is sufficient variation of state unemployment rates and state per capita income both over
time and across states, the coefficients on these variables are likely to remain statistically significant.
However, there may be multicollinearity between the two variables, and the standard errors may
therefore be large.
(c) Answers will vary by student. Cultural and institutional factors, such as attitudes towards suicide and
religion, and social services, are frequently mentioned.
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3) Two authors published a study in 1992 of the effect of minimum wages on teenage employment using
a U.S. state panel. The paper used annual observations for the years 1977-1989 and included all 50 states
plus the District of Columbia. The estimated equation is of the following type
(Eit )= β0 + β1 (Mit /Wit ) + D2i + ... + D51i + B2t + ... + B13t + uit,
where E is the employment to population ratio of teenagers, M is the nominal minimum wage, and W is
average wage in the state. In addition, other explanatory variables, such as the prime-age male
unemployment rate, and the teenage population share were included.
(a) Briefly discuss the advantage of using panel data in this situation rather than pure cross sections or
time series.
(b) Estimating the model by OLS but including only time fixed effects results in the following output
where SHY is the proportion of teenagers in the population, and uram is the prime-age male
unemployment rate. Coefficients for the time fixed effects are not reported. Numbers in parenthesis are
homoskedasticity-only standard errors.
Comment on the above results. Are the coefficients statistically significant? Since these are level
regressions, how would you calculate elasticities?
(c) Adding state fixed effects changed the above equation as follows:
Compare the two results. Why would the inclusion of state fixed effects change the coefficients in this
way?
(d) The significance of each coefficient decreased, yet 2 increased. How is that possible? What does this
result tell you about testing the hypothesis that all of the state fixed effects can be restricted to have the
same coefficient? How would you test for such a hypothesis?
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Answer:
(a) There are likely to be omitted variables in the above regression. One way to deal with some of these is
to introduce state and time effects. State effects will capture the influence of omitted variables that are
state specific and do not vary over time, while time effects capture those of country wide variables that
are common to all states at a point in time. Furthermore, there are more observations when using panel
data, resulting in more variation.
(b) There is negative relationship between minimum wages and the employment to population ratio.
Increases in the share of teenagers in the population result in a higher employment to population ratio,
and increases in the prime-age male unemployment rate lower the employment to population ratio. 20
percent of employment to population of teenagers variation is explained by the above regression. The
relative minimum wage and the prime-age male unemployment rate are significant using a 1%
significance level, while the proportion of teenagers in the population is not. Elasticities vary with levels
here. One possibility is to report elasticities at sample means.
(c) The parameter of interest here is the coefficient on the relative minimum wage. While it was highly
significant in the previous regression, it now has changed signs and is statistically insignificant. The
explanatory power of the equation has increased substantially. The size of the other two coefficients has
also decreased. The results suggest that omitted variables, which are now captured by state fixed effects,
were correlated with the regressors and caused omitted variable bias.
(d) The influence of the state effects is large. These are bound to be statistically significant and the
hypothesis to restrict these coefficients to zero is bound to fail. Since these are linear hypothesis that are
supposed to hold simultaneously, an F-test is appropriate here.
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4) You learned in intermediate macroeconomics that certain macroeconomic growth models predict
conditional convergence or a catch up effect in per capita GDP between the countries of the world. That
is, countries which are further behind initially in per-capita GDP will grow faster than the leader. You
gather data from the Penn World Tables to test this theory.
(a) By limiting your sample to 24 OECD countries, you hope to have a more homogeneous set of
countries in your sample, i.e., countries that are not too different with respect to their institutions. To
simplify matters, you decide to only test for unconditional convergence. In that case, the laggards catch
up even without taking into account differences in some of the driving variables. Your scatter plot and
regression for the time period 1975-1989 are as follows:
where is the average annual growth rate of per capita GDP from 1975-1989, and PCGDP75_US is
per capita GDP relative to the United States in 1975. Numbers in parenthesis are heteroskedasticity-
robust standard errors.
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Interpret the results. Is there indication of unconditional convergence? What critical value did you use?
(b) Although you are quite discouraged by the result, you think that it might be due to the specific time
period used. During this period, there were two OPEC oil price shocks with varying degrees of exposure
for the OECD countries. You therefore repeat the exercise for the period 1960-1974, with the following
results:
where is the average annual growth rate of per capita GDP from 1960-1974, and PCGDP60_US is
per capita GDP relative to the United States in 1960.
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= -0.006 – 0.096 × diffinit; R2 = 0.468; SER = 0.009
(0.03) (0.021)
Interpret these results. Explain what has happened to unobservable omitted variables that are constant
over time. Suggest what some of these variables might be.
(d) Given that there are only two time periods, what other methods could you have employed to generate
the identical results? Why do you think that the slope coefficient in this regression is significant given the
results over the sub-periods?
Answer: (a) Although the slope coefficient is negative, thereby indicating unconditional convergence, the
t-statistic does not exceed the critical value. However, using the standard normal distribution here is not
really justified here since there are only 24 observations.
(b) The explanatory power of the regression is much higher and there is a larger t-statistic for the slope
coefficient. If a standard normal distribution could be used here, then the absolute value of the t-statistic
would easily exceed the critical value of 1.64. This suggests unconditional convergence over the sample
period. However, the same comment regarding the sample size as in (a) applies here.
(c) The slope coefficient suggests that countries which are further behind initially with respect to the
United States, will grow relatively faster. Almost 50 percent of the relative growth difference variation is
explained by the regression. Decreasing the initial per capita income ratio to the United States by 10
percentage points will decrease the relative growth performance by 1 percentage point. Omitted variables
that remain constant over time are picked up by focusing on changes in the variables. Some of these may
be cultural and institutional variables such as the level of educational attainment, saving rates,
population growth rates, independence of the central bank, etc.
(d) Using either a fixed effects regression or entity-demeaned OLS would have resulted in identical
estimates. In general, it is possible for included coefficients to be statistically insignificant as a result of
omitted variable bias. This result depends, among other factors, on the relationship between the omitted
variables and the included variables. Using the differencing method has eliminated at least some of the
omitted variables.
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5) A researcher investigating the determinants of crime in the United Kingdom has data for 42 police
regions over 22 years. She estimates by OLS the following regression
where cmrt is the crime rate per head of population, unrtm is the unemployment rate of males, proyth is
the proportion of youths, pp is the probability of punishment measured as (number of
convictions)/(number of crimes reported). α and φ are area and year fixed effects, where αi equals one for
area i and is zero otherwise for all i, and φt is one in year t and zero for all other years for t = 2, …, 22. φ1
is not included.
(a) What is the purpose of excluding φ1? What are the terms α and φ likely to pick up? Discuss the
advantages of using panel data for this type of investigation.
(b) Estimation by OLS using heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation-consistent standard errors results in
the following output, where the coefficients of the fixed effects are not reported:
Comment on the results. In particular, what is the effect of a ten percent increase in the probability of
punishment?
(c) To test for the relevance of the area fixed effects, your restrict the regression by dropping all entity
fixed effects and add single constant is added. The relevant F-statistic is 135.28. What are the degrees of
freedom? What is the critical value from your F table?
(d) Although the test rejects the hypothesis of eliminating the fixed effects from the regression, you want
to analyze what happens to the coefficients and their standard errors when the equation is re-estimated
without fixed effects. In the resulting regression, and do not change by much, although their
standard errors roughly double. However, is now 1.340 with a standard error of 0.234. Why do you
think that is?
Answer:
(a) Since there is no constant in addition to the entity and time fixed effects, setting φt to one in year t and
zero for all other years for t = 1, …, 22 would result in perfect multicollinearity. α picks up omitted
variables that are specific to police regions and do not vary over time. φ picks up effects that are common
to all police regions in a given year. Attitudes toward crime may vary between rural regions and
metropolitan areas. These would be hard to capture through measurable variables. Common
macroeconomic shocks that affect all regions equally will be captured by the time fixed effects. Although
some of these variables could be explicitly introduced, the list of possible variables is long. By introducing
time fixed effects, the effect is captured all in one variable.
(b) A higher male unemployment rate and a higher proportion of youths increase the crime rate, while a
higher probability of punishment decreases the crime rate. The coefficients on the probability of
punishment and the proportion of youths is statistically significant, while the male unemployment rate is
not. The regression explains roughly 90 percent of the variation in crime rates in the sample. A ten
percent increase in the number of convictions over the number of crimes reported decreases the crime
rate by roughly six percent.
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(c) The coefficients of the three regressors other than the entity coefficients would have been unaffected,
had there been a constant in the regression and (n-1) police region specific entity variables. In this case,
the entity coefficients on the police regions would have indicated deviations from the constant for the
first police region. Hence there are 41 restrictions imposed by eliminating the entity fixed effects and
adding a constant. Since there are over 100 observations (900 degrees of freedom), the critical value for
F41,∞ ≈ F30,∞ = 1.70 at the 1% level. Hence the restrictions are rejected.
(d) This result would make the male unemployment rate coefficient significant. It suggests that male
unemployment rates change slowly over the years in a given police district and that this effect is picked
up by the entity fixed effects. Of course, there are other slowly changing variables, such as attitudes
towards crime, that are captured by these fixed effects.
6) You want to investigate the relationship between cumulative GPA scores at graduation and incoming
SAT scores of students. For this purpose, you have collected data from a balanced panel of 120
undergraduate colleges and universities in the United States over a ten year period. Discuss some of the
entity fixed effects which you potentially capture by allowing for a binary variable for each of the
colleges.
Answer: Students will come up with various possible entity fixed effects. These should include
differences between educational institutions that have
and so forth.
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7) You want to study the relationship between weight and height of young children (4 th grade to 7th
grade). You collect data for more than 400 students and track the progress of these students over the
following four years, where you end up with a balanced panel of 400 students (you discard the
observations for the students who moved away). Discuss some of the entity fixed effects which you
potentially capture by allowing for a binary variable for each of the students. Do you expect significant
time fixed effects if you allowed for them?
Answer: Students will come up with various possible entity fixed effects. These will reflect differences
between students potentially depending on
• gender
• ethnicity
• degree of participation in exercises/athletic programs
• growth spurts during these years
• nutrition
• genes
and so forth. It is hard to think of time fixed effects. Potentially there could be an effect if all students
went to a different school in 7th grade (e.g. middle school) and this school had a less/more healthy lunch
diet.
8) You first encountered growth regression in your intermediate macroeconomics course ("beta-
convergence regressions"), that is, conditionally on some initial condition in per capita income, different
authors tried to find the determinants of growth. Since growth is a long-run phenomenon, various studies
collected data for a panel of numerous countries using 10-year averages, over a time period stretching
from 1960 to 2005. For example, a balanced panel might consist of 50 or so odd countries for the time
periods 1960-1970, 1971-1980, …, 2000-2005. Instead of using two-way fixed effects (entity fixed effects
and time fixed) authors often only employed time fixed effects. Why do you think that is? What sort of
information would be lost if these authors employed entity fixed effects as well?
Answer: Time fixed effects will eliminate common growth phenomenon experienced by all countries
during the same decade (say). These could include productivity slow-downs due to the oil crisis of the
‘70s, effects of the Great Moderation of the ‘90s, etc. However, most of these studies were interested in
determining the effect of institutional differences between countries. These effects, such as the degree of
democracy, law and order, openness of the economy, size of government, civil wars, geography, religion,
etc., are typically slowly changing, and by including entity fixed effects, you would lose the effects you
are interested in studying.
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10.3 Mathematical and Graphical Problems
1) Your textbook suggests an "entity-demeaned" procedure to avoid having to specify a potentially large
number of binary variables. While it is somewhat tedious to specify a binary variable for each entity, this
can still be handled relatively easily in the case of the 48 contiguous states. Give a few examples where it
might be close to impossible to implement specifying such large number of entity binary variables. The
idea of the "entity-demeaned" procedure was introduced as a computationally convenient and
simplifying procedure. Since there are also time fixed effects, why is there no discussion of using a "time-
demeaned" procedure? Using the following equation
Show how β1 can be estimated by the OLS regression using "time-demeaned" variables.
Answer: Answers will vary by student with regard to the examples. A panel containing tens of
thousands of individuals would make it impractical to specify entity fixed effects. The same would hold
for a large number of firms. Regression software typically does not estimate panel regressions using
"time-demeaned" variables, since there are not that many observations across time. In the textbook
example, there were seven years of data for the 48 contiguous U.S. states. There maybe observations for
10,000 individuals over a few years. Still, in principle, you could use a "time-demeaning" procedure.
t = β1 t + β0 + β3St + t
1 n 1 n 1 n
where Y t =
n i =1
Yit , X t = X it and u t = uit .
n i =1 n i =1
where Y it = Yit - i, and X it and u it are defined similarly. The "time-demeaned" regression can then be
estimated by OLS.
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2) Consider the case of time fixed effects only, i.e.,
First replace β0 + β3St with φt. Next show the relationship between the φt and δt in the following
equation
where each of the binary variables B2, …, BT indicates a different time period. Explain in words why the
two equations are the same. Finally show why there is perfect multicollinearity if you add another binary
variable B1. What is the intuition behind the fact that the OLS estimator does not exist in this case? Would
that also be the case if you dropped the intercept?
Answer: Yit = β1Xit + φt + uit. The relationship is φ1 = β0, and φt = β0 + δt for t ≥ 2. Consider time period
t, then the population regression line for that period is φt + β1Xit, with β1 being the same for all time
periods, but the intercept varying from time period to time period. The variation of the intercept comes
from factors which are common to all entities in a given time period, i.e., the St. The same role is played
by δ2, … δT, since B2t …BTt are only different from zero during one period. There is perfect
multicollinearity if one of the regressors can be expressed as a linear combination of the other regressors.
Define B0t as a variable that equals one for all period. In that case, the previous regression can be
rewritten as
But B0t = B1t + B2t + ... + BTt, and hence there is perfect multicollinearity. Intuitively, whenever any one of
the binary variable equals one in a given period, so does the constant. Hence the coefficient of that
variable cannot pick up a separate effect from the data. Dropping the intercept from the regression
eliminates the problem.
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Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.
3) Consider the following panel data regression with a single explanatory variable
In each of the examples below, you will be adding entity and time fixed effects. Indicate the total number
of coefficients that need to be estimated.
(a) The effect of beer taxes on the fatality rate, annual data, 1982-1988, nine U.S. regions (New England,
Pacific, Mid-Atlantic, East North Central, etc.).
(b) The effect of the minimum wage on teenage employment, annual data, 1963-2000, five Canadian
Regions (Atlantic Provinces, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies, British Columbia).
(c) The effect of savings rates on per capita income, data for three decades (1960-1969, 1970-1979, 1980-
1989; one observation per decade), 104 countries of the world.
(d) The effect of pitching quality in baseball (as measured by the Team ERA) on the winning percentage,
annual data, 1998-1999 season, 1999-2000 season, 30 teams.
Answer:
(a) 16 coefficients (6 time fixed effects, 8 entity fixed effects, intercept, slope).
(b) 43 coefficients (37 time fixed effects, 5 entity fixed effects, intercept, slope).
(c) 107 coefficients (3 time fixed effects, 103 entity fixed effects, intercept, slope).
(d) 32 coefficients (1 time fixed effect, 29 entity fixed effects, intercept, slope).
4) Your textbook modifies the four assumptions for the multiple regression model by adding a new
assumption. This represents an extension of the cross-sectional data case, where errors are uncorrelated
across entities. The new assumption requires the errors to be uncorrelated across time, conditional on the
regressors as well (cov(uit, uis Xit, Xis) = 0 for t ≠ s.).
(a) Discuss why there might be correlation over time in the errors when you use U.S. state panel data.
Does this mean that you should not use OLS as an estimator?
(b) Now consider pairs of adjacent states such as Indiana and Michigan, Texas and Arkansas, New York
and Connecticut, etc. Is it likely that the fifth assumption will hold here, even though the
"contemporaneous" errors are correlated? If not, can you still use OLS for estimation?
Answer:
(a) The error term may contain omitted variables. If these change slowly from one period to the next, then
the error term will be correlated over time. In that case (cov(uit, uis Xit, Xis) = 0 for t ≠ s will be violated.
The OLS estimator is still unbiased, but valid statistical inference cannot be conducted, even when using
heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors. However, heteroskedasticity- and autocorrelation- consistent
standard errors can be used in this situation.
(b) The fifth assumption deals with observations that do not occur during the same time period. It does
not address the problems of errors of one entity being affected by errors in another entity during the same
period. While potentially there are more efficient estimators available in such a situation, OLS can still be
used for estimation.
19
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.
5) In Sports Economics, production functions are often estimated by relating the winning percentage of
teams (Y) to inputs indicating performance in certain aspects of the game. However, this omits the quality
of management. Assume that you could measure the quality of pitching and hitting by a single index L,
and that managerial ability is represented by M, which is assumed to be constant over time. The
production function would then be specified as follows:
where i is an index for the baseball team, and t indexes time and all variables are in logs.
(a) Assume that managerial ability is unobservable but is positively related, in a linear way, to L. Explain
why the OLS estimator 1 is inconsistent in the case of a single cross-section, i.e., if you attempt to
estimate the above regression for a single year. Do you expect this coefficient to over- or under-estimate
β1?
(b) If you had data for two years, indicate the transformation, which allows you to obtain a consistent
estimator for β1.
Answer:
(a) Regressing Y on L alone will result in omitted variable bias. An increase in the pitching and hitting
index will increase managerial ability, which in return increases the winning percentage. Hence 1 will be
expected to overestimate the effect of pitching and hitting on the winning percentage. Said differently,
OLS will attribute more to pitching and hitting quality and it deserves.
(b) Since managerial ability is assumed to be constant over time, then differencing the data over the two
time-periods will eliminate this effect for all teams. This can be shown as follows:
Alternatively, the binary variable specification or the "entity-demeaned" specification could have been
used with identical estimation results.
20
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.
Another random document with
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Gastric Vertigo.—Trousseau certainly misled the profession as to the
frequency of this form, but he did little more than represent popular
medical views, and we may now feel sure that a good many so-
called gastric vertigoes are due to lithæmia or to troubles of ear or
eye. There are, I think, three ways in which the gastro-duodenal
organs are related to the production of vertigo. Acute gastric vertigo
arises in some persons inevitably whenever they eat certain articles,
and the limitations are odd enough. Thus, I know a gentleman who
cannot eat a mouthful of ice-cream without terrible vertigo, but
otherwise his digestion is perfect. I know another in whom oysters
are productive of vertigo within ten minutes; and a curious list might
be added, including, to my knowledge, milk, eggs, oysters, crabs,
etc. In these cases digestion is arrested and intense vertigo ensues,
and by and by there is emesis and gradual relief.
Single attacks are rare. It is apt to repeat itself, and finally to cause
all the distressing cerebral symptoms which characterize the worst
gastric vertigo, and at last to be capable of easy reproduction by
light, heat, over-exertion, and use of the mind or eyes, by emotion, or
by gastric disorder.
Even after the vertigo has ceased to exist the fear of loss of balance
remains, while perhaps for years the sense of confusion during
mental effort continues, and gives to the sufferer a feeling of what a
patient described to me as mental vertigo—some feeling of
confusion, lack of power to concentrate attention, loss of hold on
trains of thought, with now and then a sensation as if the contents of
the cranium moved up or down or swayed to and fro.
Vertigo from growths on the auditory nerve before it enters the inner
ear is rare in my experience. It is described as slow in its progress,
the deafness and tinnitus being at first slight, but increasing steadily,
while there is tendency to fall toward the side affected.7 In the cases
of disease attacking the seventh nerve within the cranium there is
usually so much involvement of other and important nerve-tissues as
makes the disorder of audition and equilibration comparatively
unimportant.
7 Burnett.
Then it is that even slight defects of the eye may cause vertigo,
which if usually slight and transient, coming and going as the eyes
are used or rested, is sometimes severe and incapacitating. I have
over and over seen vertigo with or without occipital pain or distress in
persons whose eyes were supposed to be sufficiently corrected with
glasses, but who found instant relief when a more exact correction
was made; and this is, I think, a matter which has not yet generally
received from oculists the attention it demands.
Vertigo in old age, if not due to the stomach or defective states of the
portal system, kidneys, or heart, is either caused by atheromatous
vessels or multiple minute aneurismal dilatations of vessels, or in
full-blooded people by some excess of blood or some quality of
blood which is readily changed by an alteration in the diet, of which I
shall presently speak. Whatever be its source, it is in the old a matter
of reasonable anxiety.
It is, however, worth recording here that I have more than once seen
enduring vertiginous status, with occasional grave fits of vertigo,
arise out of very prolonged sea-sickness. In the last example of this
sequence seen by me there was, after a year or more, some
deafness.
In these cases, after the eye has been corrected, the diet should be
regulated with care. In extreme cases it may become desirable to
limit it to milk, fruit, and vegetables where no obvious peculiarities
forbid such a regimen; and I have found it useful to insist also on
some food being used between meals.
I like, also, that these patients rest an hour supine after each meal,
and spend much time out of doors, disregarding their tendency to lie
down. Exercise ought to be taken systematically, and if the vertigo
still forbids it, massage is a good substitute. At first near use of the
eyes is to be avoided, and when the patient resumes their use he
should do this also by system, adding a minute each day until
attainment of the limit of easy use enjoins a pause at that amount of
reading for a time.
TREMOR.
Tremor is sometimes hereditary, and may exist from early life. I have
a patient in whom there is a trembling of the hands which has lasted
since childhood. This lady's mother and grandmother both had the
same form of tremor, and one of her own daughters also has it. In
this case the trembling is most marked when voluntary movements
are attempted, but it does not materially interfere with writing,
sewing, or any other act she wishes to accomplish. There is slight
tremor when the hands are at rest.
When tremor first begins it is slight in degree and extent, and occurs
generally only on voluntary effort. Later there may be a constant
trembling even when the part is at rest. Beginning usually in the
hands, it may extend to the head and legs. It is seen in the tongue
and facial muscles after the disease has lasted for some time.
In some cases the trembling can be controlled to some extent by a
strong effort of will. The tremor from alcohol or opium is most marked
when the individual has been without the use of the stimulant for a
short time, and the trembling may be temporarily checked by
renewing the dose of alcohol or opium as the case may be.
The tremor does not begin at once on section of the nerve, but
comes on after a few days. As the peripheral end of the nerve
undergoes degeneration the tremor increases. It may last months or
even years.
PARALYSIS AGITANS.