when you say: just leave the 5 out and stata does not
need a balanced panel,
How do I deal with that? should I do as Nick said, "as
missing" but then do I have to do it one by one, which
one is missing and then from that.
For example, Year one; I have 7 obs: and the pid is 1
till 7.
Year two: I have only 4 because 3 did not reply so I
have 1 .3. 5. 7 but if I use the n way of assigning
pid then I will have 123 and then it will not match
the actual missing individual.
If you know somehow that the non-respondents in period 2 are #2, #4,
#6, then you know that the remaining individuals are #1, #3, #5, #7.
Normally in panel data each record has some sort of person
identifier. How are you identifying the missing individuals as #2,
#4, #6? However that is accomplished, it should allow you to build a
person identifier variable that you can then use in tsset.
