Dear Stataforumists,

I am currently having some trouble combining two variables into one. The reason for this is my data set has a high non-response on the father's education's variable, and using both mother and father in analyses makes a drop in observations. The aim is to increase N by combining the two variables.

My dataset has N=208. The mom variable has n=161 recorded obs, while dad n=114.
The two variables (momeducation, dadeducation) is divided like this:
Mom (morutd) Dad (farutd)
Short education (1) 17 26
Upper Secondary (2) 93 56
Long education (3) 51 32
missing 47 64
To combine them I have tried three combinations in Stata, but none give me the desired result.

Code:
g edu=.
replace edu=farutd_spes if morutd_spes==.
replaceedu=morutd_spes if farutd_spes==.

replace edu=morutd_spes if morutd_spes>farutd_spes & morutd_spes<.
replace edu=farutd_spes if farutd_spes>morutd_spes & farutd_spes <.
Here the end result is 64% missing. 1 becomes n=2. 2 n=39. 3. n=33. So this makes no sense.

The other code I tried is

Code:
g edu=.


replace edu=farsutd if morsutd==.

replace edu=morsutd if farsutd==.

replace edu=morsutd if morsutd>farsutd & farsutd <. & morsutd<.

replace edu=morsutd if morsutd>farsutd & farsutd <. & morsutd<.
Also with the same effect, but higher missing.


Any ideas or thoughts on how to increase N by combining the two variables?

Thanks in advance.