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  • Error 103 too many variables specified

    Hi

    I am runing a OLS regression for a weekly panel data containing 104 weeks, 32 exporter countries (ono) and 29 importer countries (cno). I want to introduce country time varying fixed effects, so I use the interact countries and weeks:

    reg lq ldist dhome dlang i.ono#i.week i.cno#i.week

    to interact countries with weeks. In total I have 6346 and one continuous variable. Every time I try this I obtain the error message 103 "too many variables specified". However, when I did this regression two months ago with a very similar dataset (same size) I didn't obtain any error message. I have set matsize to 11000 and maxvar to 20000

    Any idea of what the problem can be?

    Thank you very much,
    Estrella

  • #2
    Estrella (as per FAQ, please note the preference for real full surnames, too on this forum):
    as a first step, you may want to take a look at -help cf- to investigate the differences in the databases you mention in your query.
    Kind regards,
    Carlo
    Kind regards,
    Carlo
    (Stata 18.0 SE)

    Comment


    • #3
      Dear Carlo

      Thank you for your answer. I have checked that both dataset are different; but I still have the problem of the 103 error message... Any further idea?

      Thanks,
      Estrella Gomez

      Comment


      • #4
        You could set trace on to try to see precisely what is biting, but at first sight you seem to be asking for an extraordinarily large number of terms to be fitted.

        Comment


        • #5
          With 61 countries with 104 weeks each, there are 61 x 104 = 6344 observations. You've specified 6347 variables. No wonder Stata complains! And you are far from the rules of thumb that require 5-10 observations per fitted coefficient for OLS. The flaw is your attempt to fit all the week-company combinations-this is what your two interaction terms amount to. Note that you don't have a term for comparing importer and exporter companies.

          I'm not expert in panel data analysis, but I recommend that you consider xtset and an analysis with xtreg or mixed. You can parameterize time with a spline function and fit quite complicated models, whether with "fixed effects" in the panel data sense (a separate parameter, not estimated, for every company) or with companies as random effects.

          Thank you for signing your real name. Now, please make it official by re-registering so that your name appears properly everywhere. You can do it via the CONTACT US button at the bottom right.
          Last edited by Steve Samuels; 11 Nov 2014, 17:20.
          Steve Samuels
          Statistical Consulting
          [email protected]

          Stata 14.2

          Comment


          • #6
            Thank you!

            Comment


            • #7
              Hello,

              Here is the example of my data; the data in the example is sorted by location, so, in fact, it is related to only one household with location id 600001 (the original data is for many households over 2017-2018).

              Code:
              * Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
              clear
              input long location float(lconsum tp) byte randomgrp float(calday treatgr) int treat_numb_of_days
              600001  5.332319 0 0 20820 0 -403
              600001  5.397176 0 0 20821 0 -402
              600001 5.4483995 0 0 20822 0 -401
              600001 5.4339075 0 0 20823 0 -400
              600001 5.3300753 0 0 20824 0 -399
              600001  4.984716 0 0 20825 0 -398
              600001 5.2140517 0 0 20826 0 -397
              600001 5.4064755 0 0 20827 0 -396
              600001 5.2368565 0 0 20828 0 -395
              600001 5.3253976 0 0 20829 0 -394
              600001 5.2220044 0 0 20830 0 -393
              600001 5.4335613 0 0 20831 0 -392
              600001  5.122608 0 0 20832 0 -391
              600001  5.443592 0 0 20833 0 -390
              600001 5.1272955 0 0 20834 0 -389
              600001  5.153299 0 0 20835 0 -388
              600001  5.018543 0 0 20836 0 -387
              600001 4.8548176 0 0 20837 0 -386
              600001  4.744078 0 0 20838 0 -385
              600001  4.775974 0 0 20839 0 -384
              end
              format %td calday
              location; household’s location id
              lconsum; log of energy consumption
              tp; post-treatment variable; gen tp = (calday >= td(08feb2018))
              randomgr; one of three treatment groups (can be 1,2,3, as well as 0 if it is a control group)
              calday; day and year 01jan2017
              treatgr; treatment indicator;
              gen treatgr = randomgrp if calday >= td(08feb2018)
              replace treat = 0 if treat ==.
              treat_numb_of_days; the number of days before/after the treatment date; gen treat_numb_of_days = calday-td(08feb2018)


              I need to do the following two regressions using quite similar model specifications:
              qui tab calday, gen(day_dummy)
              areg lconsum i.treat tp i.treat#tp#c.treat_numb_of_days#i.day_dummy*, absorb(location) vce(cluster location)
              and
              areg lconsum i.treat tp i.treat#c.treat_numb_of_days#i.calday, absorb(location) vce(cluster location)

              However, the two regression above take up over 5000 variables. I get this error:
              maxvar too small
              You have attempted to use an interaction with too many levels or attempted to fit a model with too many variables.
              You need to increase maxvar; it is currently 5000


              So, I have two questions:
              1
              Could you please tell me why I end up with so many variables in my regressions? There are only about 680 daily dummies in my original data, so I do not understand why so many variables are used.
              2
              If I do not want to use “set maxvar”, how can I modify my code in order to avoid the error message above?


              Thank you.
              Last edited by Katherine Adams; 21 Feb 2019, 07:37.

              Comment


              • #8
                you can try to use reghdfe instead of using reg,stata maybe can work

                Comment

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