How to restrict a variable to its initial observation

[Tuinsmurf]

Hello,

I am running an economic growth regression for 8 countries between 1984-2008. One of the first independent variables is the initial GDP per capita for each country.

How would I restrict my variable to the initial observation for each country in a regression in EViews? I thought about creating another variable in excel, which only shows the initial observation for each country, but I am not sure if importing this into EViews will yield the same results.

Thank you for the help!

Tuinsmurf

[EViews Gareth]

You'll end up with a variable that is constant for each cross-section. That's just a fixed effect.

[startz]

Not necessarily. Including the initial observation isn't the same as including a fixed effect because all countries are constrained to have the same coefficient.

[EViews Glenn]

Assuming you are panel structured

Code: Select all

series z=@firstsby(y, @crossid)