Hi all,

I need your comments on change in sign and significance of linear term after adding quadratic and cubic terms. please see details below:

I am using panel data with 681 firms and 9 years each.

DV: In_roa (firm performance)
IV: ff_d (dummy variable, whether firm is family firm or not, if family then 1)
IV: stdfo_own (shares held by an investment company in a firm, values ranges from 0 to 100, moreover i standardized this variable by egen stdvar=std(var) in order to get standardized coefficients ) ----- quadratic and cubic terms of this variable are also used later.

rest four variables are control variables

DV and all control variables are log transformed

i also add interaction terms of both IVs

When i ran xtreg ,fe only with linear terms and their respective interaction. The results are following

Code:
. xtreg ln_roa ln_age ln_assets ln_leverage ln_ebitda stdfo_own i.ff_d c.stdfo_own#i.ff_d i.year,fe

Fixed-effects (within) regression               Number of obs     =      2,619
Group variable: sr                              Number of groups  =        435

R-sq:                                           Obs per group:
     within  = 0.3449                                         min =          1
     between = 0.0702                                         avg =        6.0
     overall = 0.0961                                         max =          9

                                                F(15,2169)        =      76.14
corr(u_i, Xb)  = -0.9166                        Prob > F          =     0.0000

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          ln_roa |      Coef.   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
          ln_age |  -.2425169   .1151951    -2.11   0.035    -.4684213   -.0166125
       ln_assets |   .0968887   .0733825     1.32   0.187    -.0470188    .2407961
     ln_leverage |   -.090931   .0229502    -3.96   0.000    -.1359377   -.0459243
       ln_ebitda |   1.143277   .0353174    32.37   0.000     1.074017    1.212536
       stdfo_own |   .1853135   .0686506     2.70   0.007     .0506857    .3199414
          1.ff_d |   1.106262   .4312164     2.57   0.010     .2606212    1.951902
                 |
ff_d#c.stdfo_own |
              1  |  -.3014559   .1265948    -2.38   0.017    -.5497158   -.0531961
                 |
            year |
           2008  |  -.1011256   .0543446    -1.86   0.063    -.2076986    .0054474
           2009  |  -.1452684   .0588673    -2.47   0.014    -.2607106   -.0298262
           2010  |  -.1071921   .0573892    -1.87   0.062    -.2197355    .0053514
           2011  |  -.0159812   .0603661    -0.26   0.791    -.1343627    .1024002
           2012  |   -.021513   .0640318    -0.34   0.737    -.1470832    .1040571
           2013  |  -.0861119   .0674674    -1.28   0.202    -.2184194    .0461957
           2014  |  -.0374172   .0699141    -0.54   0.593    -.1745228    .0996884
           2015  |  -.0255822   .0741488    -0.35   0.730    -.1709924     .119828
                 |
           _cons |   1.423105   .9439093     1.51   0.132    -.4279559    3.274166
-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
         sigma_u |  2.2670211
         sigma_e |  .64303764
             rho |  .92553463   (fraction of variance due to u_i)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
F test that all u_i=0: F(434, 2169) = 10.38                  Prob > F = 0.0000
but when i add quadratic and cubic terms with their respective interaction terms, change of sign of main linear effect of Stdfo_own arise and main variable and its interaction term also goes insignificant. Please see below:

Code:
. xtreg ln_roa ln_age ln_assets ln_leverage ln_ebitda stdfo_own i.ff_d c.stdfo_own#i.ff_d c.stdfo_own#c.stdfo_o
> wn c.stdfo_own#c.stdfo_own#c.stdfo_own i.ff_d#c.stdfo_own#c.stdfo_own i.ff_d#c.stdfo_own#c.stdfo_own#c.stdfo_
> own i.year,fe

Fixed-effects (within) regression               Number of obs     =      2,619
Group variable: sr                              Number of groups  =        435

R-sq:                                           Obs per group:
     within  = 0.3525                                         min =          1
     between = 0.0702                                         avg =        6.0
     overall = 0.0972                                         max =          9

                                                F(19,2165)        =      62.04
corr(u_i, Xb)  = -0.9157                        Prob > F          =     0.0000

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  ln_roa |      Coef.   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
-----------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
                                  ln_age |  -.2487596    .114643    -2.17   0.030    -.4735815   -.0239377
                               ln_assets |   .1082457   .0732253     1.48   0.139    -.0353535    .2518448
                             ln_leverage |  -.0875726   .0228485    -3.83   0.000    -.1323799   -.0427653
                               ln_ebitda |   1.147255   .0351986    32.59   0.000     1.078229    1.216282
                               stdfo_own |  -.4299763   .2723444    -1.58   0.115    -.9640601    .1041074
                                  1.ff_d |   1.385639   .5345586     2.59   0.010     .3373372    2.433941
                                         |
                        ff_d#c.stdfo_own |
                                      1  |   .1154103   .4098834     0.28   0.778    -.6883959    .9192164
                                         |
                 c.stdfo_own#c.stdfo_own |   1.829437   .3914211     4.67   0.000     1.061837    2.597038
                                         |
     c.stdfo_own#c.stdfo_own#c.stdfo_own |   -.548248   .1106208    -4.96   0.000    -.7651821    -.331314
                                         |
            ff_d#c.stdfo_own#c.stdfo_own |
                                      1  |   -1.62318   .5700911    -2.85   0.004    -2.741162   -.5051965
                                         |
ff_d#c.stdfo_own#c.stdfo_own#c.stdfo_own |
                                      1  |   .5078677   .1566739     3.24   0.001     .2006207    .8151146
                                         |
                                    year |
                                   2008  |  -.0976755   .0541075    -1.81   0.071    -.2037836    .0084325
                                   2009  |  -.1358211   .0586226    -2.32   0.021    -.2507835   -.0208587
                                   2010  |  -.0975943   .0571462    -1.71   0.088    -.2096614    .0144728
                                   2011  |    .000361   .0602345     0.01   0.995    -.1177626    .1184846
                                   2012  |  -.0069673   .0638666    -0.11   0.913    -.1322135     .118279
                                   2013  |   -.076881   .0672857    -1.14   0.253    -.2088323    .0550702
                                   2014  |  -.0218242   .0697872    -0.31   0.755    -.1586811    .1150327
                                   2015  |  -.0140085   .0739652    -0.19   0.850    -.1590588    .1310417
                                         |
                                   _cons |   .8776022   .9563418     0.92   0.359    -.9978418    2.753046
-----------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
                                 sigma_u |  2.2607953
                                 sigma_e |  .63990051
                                     rho |  .92582914   (fraction of variance due to u_i)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
F test that all u_i=0: F(434, 2165) = 10.46                  Prob > F = 0.0000

.
it would be great if anyone can explain why does this change happens and what does it mean.
best regards,