Interpretation and identification of within-unit and cross-sectional variation in panel data models

Jonathan Kropko, Robert Kubinec

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

While fixed effects (FE) models are often employed to address potential omitted variables, we argue that these models’ real utility is in isolating a particular dimension of variance from panel data for analysis. In addition, we show through novel mathematical decomposition and simulation that only one-way FE models cleanly capture either the over-time or cross-sectional dimensions in panel data, while the two-way FE model unhelpfully combines within-unit and cross-sectional variation in a way that produces un-interpretable answers. In fact, as we show in this paper, if we begin with the interpretation that many researchers wrongly assign to the two-way FE model—that it represents a single estimate of X on Y while accounting for unit-level heterogeneity and time shocks—the two-way FE specification is statistically unidentified, a fact that statistical software packages like R and Stata obscure through internal matrix processing.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere0231349
JournalPloS one
Volume15
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2020

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
  • General

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Interpretation and identification of within-unit and cross-sectional variation in panel data models'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this