Missing marital status between years

[Gabriela Kalibatseva]

Hi all,

What I am trying to do is identify all people who have reported being married but for two or more years they have reported no status. This is based on panel data 1984-2015. There is missing data in between status of being married. I tried using the below command (pid=perosnal ID, marstatus =1 if the person is married):

by pid syear: gen cutoff=(marstatus!=marstatus[_n-1]) if marstatus ==1
by pid: gen spell=sum(cutoff)
by pid spell (syear), sort: gen spell_l = _N
recode cutoff (.=0)

However I still cannot manage. I wan to remove for example this person who has no reported status between 1987 and 1989. However for every person those years might be defferent

* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input byte marstatus int syear long pid float(spell length cutoff)
1 1984 3202 1  1 1
1 1985 3202 2  1 1
1 1986 3202 3  4 1
. 1987 3202 3  4 0
. 1988 3202 3  4 0
. 1989 3202 3  4 0
1 1990 3202 4 26 1
. 1991 3202 4 26 0
. 1992 3202 4 26 0
. 1993 3202 4 26 0
. 1994 3202 4 26 0
. 1995 3202 4 26 0
. 1996 3202 4 26 0
. 1997 3202 4 26 0
. 1998 3202 4 26 0
. 1999 3202 4 26 0
. 2000 3202 4 26 0
. 2001 3202 4 26 0
. 2002 3202 4 26 0
. 2003 3202 4 26 0
. 2004 3202 4 26 0
. 2005 3202 4 26 0
. 2006 3202 4 26 0
. 2007 3202 4 26 0
. 2008 3202 4 26 0
. 2009 3202 4 26 0
. 2010 3202 4 26 0
. 2011 3202 4 26 0
. 2012 3202 4 26 0
. 2013 3202 4 26 0
. 2014 3202 4 26 0
. 2015 3202 4 26 0
end
label values marstatus d11104
label def d11104 1 "[1] Married        1", modify

[Clyde Schechter]

I think you want:

* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input byte marstatus int syear long pid
1 1984 3202
1 1985 3202
1 1986 3202
. 1987 3202
. 1988 3202
. 1989 3202
1 1990 3202
. 1991 3202
. 1992 3202
. 1993 3202
. 1994 3202
. 1995 3202
. 1996 3202
. 1997 3202
. 1998 3202
. 1999 3202
. 2000 3202
. 2001 3202
. 2002 3202
. 2003 3202
. 2004 3202
. 2005 3202
. 2006 3202
. 2007 3202
. 2008 3202
. 2009 3202
. 2010 3202
. 2011 3202
. 2012 3202
. 2013 3202
. 2014 3202
. 2015 3202
end
label values marstatus d11104
label def d11104 1 "[1] Married        1", modify

//    IDENTIFY SPELLS OF MISSINGNESS OF MARITALSTATUS
by pid (syear), sort: gen spell_num = sum((missing(marstatus) != missing(marstatus[_n-1])) ///
    | _n == 1)
by pid spell_num (syear), sort: gen spell_duration = _N
by pid, sort: egen longest_missing_spell = max(cond(missing(marstatus), spell_duration, .))

//    IDENTIFY PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN MARRIED
by pid, sort: egen ever_married = max(marstatus == 1)

//    DROP THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN MARRIED AND HAVE A MISSING SPELL TWO YEARS OR LONGER
drop if ever_married & longest_missing_spell >= 2

[Gabriela Kalibatseva]

Hi Clyde,

this actually works! So many thanks, highly appreciated !

Best regards,
Gabriela