Create panel workfile with data from Excel (Orbis data)

[plzhelp]

I'm having trouble creating a panel workfile in EViews6. I have looked in the EViews guide and on this forum (pool/panel) but I still cannot do it. My Excel data is imported from Orbis database and does not look like any examples I can find on the internet. I have attached an example but the real Excel workbook contains a large number of variables (in one sheet) and can therefore not (easily) be manipulated i Excel. I think the problem is that I cannot stack the data properly in EViews.
Furthermore I'm not sure whether to create the dummy variables in Excel or in EViews.
Thanks!

[EViews Gareth]

It is hard to tell from that spreadsheet what the dimensions of your panel are. You seem to have 3 identifiers - Company, Country, and then Year. But company doesn't appear to be a panel identifier.

[plzhelp]

@Eviews Gareth: I need to do a panel regression where the observations varies across company and year. I therefore believe that each observation can be identified by "year" AND "company". I want to stack the data so that each company is listed one time each year and so that each variable is only listed once. (currently I have each company listed once and all variables listed each year). "country" is to be included like all other variables (just as a dymmy for n-1 countries). I have once more tried to show it in Excel. Please see file attached. Thanks!

[EViews Gareth]

Using your initial Excel file, if you open it in EViews, you'll get a workfile with 25 observations, and a bunch of series, such as ebit_2008, ebit_2009, roa_2010 etc...

From that workfile you can click on Proc->Reshape Current Page->Stack in New page. In the first box enter "ebit?", then hit OK.

You'll get a new page that will have the ebit and roa values stacked. All you need to do now is structure it as a panel. First of all you need to create a date series. To do this, type:

Code: Select all

series year = @val(@mid(var01, 2))

In the command window. This creates a numerical variable, called year, from the alpha variable, var01, that was created during the page stack. Note that var01 contains _2008, _2009 etc..., so cannot be used as a date series itself (since EViews won't recognise the _ part).

Once you've done that, you can click on Proc-Sturcture/Resize Current Page, then change the structure type to "Dated Panel", and enter "company" as the cross-section ID, and "year" as the date id. Then you're done.

[plzhelp]

Thanks!