Models for Panel Data

Abstract

Cross-section models have certain inherent limitations. They are predominantly equilibrium models that generally do not shed light on intertemporal dependence of events. They also cannot satisfactorily resolve fundamental issues about the sources of persistence in behavior. Such persistence may be behavioral, i.e. arising from true state dependence, or it may be spurious, being an artifact of the inability to control for heterogeneous behavior in the population. Because panel data, also called longitudinal data, contain periodically repeated observations of the same subjects, they have a large potential for resolving issues that cross-section models cannot satisfactorily handle. Chapters 21 through 23 present methods for panel data. We progress systematically from linear models for continuous data in Chapter 21 to nonlinear panel data models for limited dependent variables in Chapter 23. Both fixed effects and random effects models are considered. A persistent theme through these three chapters is the importance of using panel-robust methods of inference. Chapter 21, which reviews the key general results for linear panel data regression models, can be read easily by those with a good grasp of linear regression; it does not require the material covered in Parts 2 to 4. We recommend that even those who are interested in more advanced material should quickly peruse through the contents of this chapter first to gain familiarity with key concepts and definitions. Chapter 22 covers important extensions of Chapter 21, especially to dynamic panels which allow for Markovian dependence structure of current variables.