In a prior post I looked at https://www.statalist.org/forums/for...hin-a-variable I tried to derive an answer, but no response, so I thought I create a new post. I am working with panel data that is based on observations at the county level. I want to run a regression analysis but need to create control and treatment groups based on whether states expanded Medicaid during the 2010 health care reform or did not. I have 37 states adopted medicaid and 14 did not adopt Medicaid.

I have a variable statenameabr (state name abbreviation) which I changed from string to numeric. In the prior post, it was recommend to use the -inlist- command. I thought I would use that as well since the -inlist- command can 2 and 255 arguments for reals but limited for string var.

I suggested the following and not sure if that would work.

Code:
encode statenameabr, gen (statenameabr1)
I am proposing the following to generate a 0/1 dummy for statemcaidexp where 1 = 37 states that expanded medicaid and 0 = 14 states that did not expand.

Code:
gen statemedicaid = 1 if inlist (statenameabr1, "AL", "AS", "AZ", "CA",....)

My end goal is:
1. I can look at the distribution of education, income, insurance status of people in states that have expanded medicaid compare to those that did not. I am thinking once I create the statemcaidexp variable i should be able to do that.
2. Of the states in each group a further stratification of those to create a control and treatment group within each of the groups created in #1.

Here are some of the variables I have in my data set. For goal #2, I would use the variable -ever_had_fqhc- and -wanted-
Code:
* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input byte year float(n_county wanted ever_had_fqhc) str2 statenameabr
15 1 1 1 "AL"
18 1 1 1 "AL"
17 1 1 1 "AL"
16 1 1 1 "AL"
 8 1 1 1 "AL"
13 1 1 1 "AL"
 6 1 1 1 "AL"
14 1 1 1 "AL"
12 1 1 1 "AL"
10 1 1 1 "AL"
 4 1 1 1 "AL"
11 1 1 1 "AL"
17 2 1 1 "AL"
18 2 1 1 "AL"
16 2 1 1 "AL"
15 2 1 1 "AL"
 6 2 1 1 "AL"
12 2 1 1 "AL"
 4 2 1 1 "AL"
11 2 1 1 "AL"
14 2 1 1 "AL"
 8 2 1 1 "AL"
10 2 1 1 "AL"
13 2 1 1 "AL"
17 3 1 1 "AL"
15 3 1 1 "AL"
18 3 1 1 "AL"
16 3 1 1 "AL"
13 3 1 1 "AL"
 8 3 1 1 "AL"
 6 3 1 1 "AL"
14 3 1 1 "AL"
11 3 1 1 "AL"
12 3 1 1 "AL"
10 3 1 1 "AL"
 4 3 1 1 "AL"
17 4 1 1 "AL"
18 4 1 1 "AL"
15 4 1 1 "AL"
16 4 1 1 "AL"
 4 4 1 1 "AL"
 8 4 1 1 "AL"
14 4 1 1 "AL"
 6 4 1 1 "AL"
10 4 1 1 "AL"
12 4 1 1 "AL"
13 4 1 1 "AL"
11 4 1 1 "AL"
18 5 1 1 "AL"
17 5 1 1 "AL"
15 5 1 1 "AL"
16 5 1 1 "AL"
10 5 1 1 "AL"
12 5 1 1 "AL"
13 5 1 1 "AL"
 4 5 1 1 "AL"
11 5 1 1 "AL"
14 5 1 1 "AL"
 6 5 1 1 "AL"
 8 5 1 1 "AL"
15 6 1 1 "AL"
17 6 1 1 "AL"
16 6 1 1 "AL"
18 6 1 1 "AL"
13 6 1 1 "AL"
 6 6 1 1 "AL"
 8 6 1 1 "AL"
14 6 1 1 "AL"
11 6 1 1 "AL"
10 6 1 1 "AL"
 4 6 1 1 "AL"
12 6 1 1 "AL"
17 7 1 1 "AL"
16 7 1 1 "AL"
18 7 1 1 "AL"
15 7 1 1 "AL"
12 7 1 1 "AL"
14 7 1 1 "AL"
13 7 1 1 "AL"
10 7 1 1 "AL"
 8 7 1 1 "AL"
 4 7 1 1 "AL"
 6 7 1 1 "AL"
11 7 1 1 "AL"
17 8 1 1 "AL"
18 8 1 1 "AL"
15 8 1 1 "AL"
16 8 1 1 "AL"
 8 8 1 1 "AL"
11 8 1 1 "AL"
14 8 1 1 "AL"
12 8 1 1 "AL"
13 8 1 1 "AL"
 6 8 1 1 "AL"
10 8 1 1 "AL"
 4 8 1 1 "AL"
15 9 1 1 "AL"
16 9 1 1 "AL"
17 9 1 1 "AL"
18 9 1 1 "AL"
end
label values n_county n_county
label def n_county 1 "Alabama Autauga", modify
label def n_county 2 "Alabama Baldwin", modify
label def n_county 3 "Alabama Barbour", modify
label def n_county 4 "Alabama Bibb", modify
label def n_county 5 "Alabama Blount", modify
label def n_county 6 "Alabama Bullock", modify
label def n_county 7 "Alabama Butler", modify
label def n_county 8 "Alabama Calhoun", modify
label def n_county 9 "Alabama Chambers", modify
label var year "Reshaped Year variable panel data"
label var n_county "group(statename countyname)"
label var wanted "1 if n_county started out with 0 FQHCs and then got 1 at some point in time and "
label var ever_had_fqhc "1= for all obs of any n_county that has had 1 or more FQHC's at any point in tim"
label var statenameabr "State Name Abbreviation"