Hi Statalist,

I want to run OLS regression on my dataset and I need advice on if I should choose areg or reghdfe or xtreg.

Data: I'm using a subsample of this data. Each observation is one birth, with information of the baby, the mom, and dad and birth time, state, county, etc. There's no id for the mother so I can't tell if they are same moms over different years or different moms over different years. I'm assuming they are different moms.

I'm asked to run the following regression:
Regression: Y_icmy = b0 + b1*EmploymentRate_cy + b2*X_i + u_ym + e_icmy
i: each birth
c: mom's residing county
m: birth month
y: birth year
Y_icmy are 4 different outcomes including, baby's birth weight indicator, delivery method, prenatal care visits pre-term birth.
EmploymentRate_cy is the employment rate of the county
X_i is a group of dummies (for eg, mom's education, race, ..)
u_ym is a set of year-by-month fixed effects of the conception time
standard err is clustered on the mom’s county

Stata Results: I tried xtreg, areg, and reghdfe and the code & results are as below:

xtreg:
Code:
    xtset cntyrfip
    foreach yvar in birthwt pretermbir csec nprevis{
        xtreg `yvar' emptopop i.dummage i.dmeduc i.dummrace i.dmar i.csex i.dumbirorder conceptmodate, fe cluster(cntyrfip)
    }
output:
Code:
 panel variable:  cntyrfip (unbalanced)

Fixed-effects (within) regression               Number of obs     =    415,258
Group variable: cntyrfip                        Number of groups  =         28

R-sq:                                           Obs per group:
     within  = 0.0132                                         min =        536
     between = 0.3507                                         avg =   14,830.6
     overall = 0.0133                                         max =     97,957

                                                F(27,27)          =          .
corr(u_i, Xb)  = -0.1707                        Prob > F          =          .

                               (Std. Err. adjusted for 28 clusters in cntyrfip)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              |               Robust
      birthwt |      Coef.   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
     emptopop |   .0188474   .0422724     0.45   0.659    -.0678885    .1055833
              |
      dummage |
           2  |  -.0234066   .0014085   -16.62   0.000    -.0262965   -.0205166
           3  |  -.0197053   .0022694    -8.68   0.000    -.0243617   -.0150488
           4  |  -.0005011   .0025157    -0.20   0.844    -.0056628    .0046606
              |
       dmeduc |
           1  |  -.0060045    .012484    -0.48   0.634    -.0316195    .0196105
           2  |   -.009585   .0083465    -1.15   0.261    -.0267106    .0075406
           3  |  -.0201655    .009807    -2.06   0.050    -.0402877   -.0000433
           4  |  -.0212308   .0099151    -2.14   0.041    -.0415749   -.0008867
           5  |  -.0136463   .0039725    -3.44   0.002    -.0217972   -.0054953
           6  |  -.0267736    .004405    -6.08   0.000    -.0358119   -.0177353
           7  |  -.0163685   .0086613    -1.89   0.070      -.03414     .001403
           8  |   -.016259   .0078926    -2.06   0.049    -.0324533   -.0000647
           9  |  -.0179093   .0059974    -2.99   0.006    -.0302151   -.0056036
          10  |  -.0159399    .006219    -2.56   0.016    -.0287002   -.0031796
          11  |  -.0152933   .0070564    -2.17   0.039    -.0297719   -.0008147
          12  |  -.0236959   .0065388    -3.62   0.001    -.0371124   -.0102793
          13  |  -.0281477   .0068223    -4.13   0.000    -.0421458   -.0141495
          14  |  -.0305678   .0065424    -4.67   0.000    -.0439918   -.0171439
          15  |  -.0319048   .0066587    -4.79   0.000    -.0455673   -.0182422
          16  |   -.036879   .0070394    -5.24   0.000    -.0513228   -.0224353
          17  |  -.0372261   .0077217    -4.82   0.000    -.0530698   -.0213824
              |
     dummrace |
           2  |   .0545832   .0013128    41.58   0.000     .0518895    .0572769
           3  |  -.0051098   .0015808    -3.23   0.003    -.0083533   -.0018662
           4  |    .011673   .0025248     4.62   0.000     .0064926    .0168535
              |
       2.dmar |   .0237415   .0017259    13.76   0.000     .0202003    .0272827
       2.csex |   .0097996   .0006279    15.61   0.000     .0085112     .011088
4.dumbirorder |  -.0609698   .0063748    -9.56   0.000    -.0740499   -.0478897
conceptmodate |   .0001519   .0000231     6.58   0.000     .0001045    .0001992
        _cons |    .024313   .0177508     1.37   0.182    -.0121087    .0607347
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
      sigma_u |  .00738704
      sigma_e |  .23620757
          rho |  .00097708   (fraction of variance due to u_i)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fixed-effects (within) regression               Number of obs     =    415,258
Group variable: cntyrfip                        Number of groups  =         28

R-sq:                                           Obs per group:
     within  = 0.0146                                         min =        536
     between = 0.0797                                         avg =   14,830.6
     overall = 0.0096                                         max =     97,957

                                                F(27,27)          =          .
corr(u_i, Xb)  = -0.6292                        Prob > F          =          .

                               (Std. Err. adjusted for 28 clusters in cntyrfip)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              |               Robust
   pretermbir |      Coef.   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
     emptopop |   .2171136   .0674441     3.22   0.003     .0787297    .3554975
              |
      dummage |
           2  |   -.043691   .0026736   -16.34   0.000    -.0491767   -.0382052
           3  |  -.0487423   .0033546   -14.53   0.000    -.0556255   -.0418592
           4  |  -.0188399   .0034741    -5.42   0.000    -.0259681   -.0117117
              |
       dmeduc |
           1  |    .013965   .0137682     1.01   0.319    -.0142851     .042215
           2  |    .009339   .0068673     1.36   0.185    -.0047516    .0234296
           3  |  -.0030966   .0064848    -0.48   0.637    -.0164022     .010209
           4  |  -.0130372   .0096425    -1.35   0.188     -.032822    .0067475
           5  |  -.0129679   .0050734    -2.56   0.017    -.0233778   -.0025581
           6  |  -.0282894   .0070967    -3.99   0.000    -.0428506   -.0137283
           7  |  -.0197083    .008737    -2.26   0.032     -.037635   -.0017815
           8  |   -.014648   .0061302    -2.39   0.024    -.0272261     -.00207
           9  |  -.0230106   .0072043    -3.19   0.004    -.0377926   -.0082286
          10  |   -.019993   .0058661    -3.41   0.002    -.0320293   -.0079568
          11  |  -.0193685   .0073412    -2.64   0.014    -.0344315   -.0043055
          12  |  -.0248285   .0069535    -3.57   0.001    -.0390959   -.0105612
          13  |  -.0286812   .0071548    -4.01   0.000    -.0433618   -.0140007
          14  |  -.0267416   .0076261    -3.51   0.002    -.0423891    -.011094
          15  |  -.0294642   .0061119    -4.82   0.000    -.0420048   -.0169236
          16  |  -.0382608    .007095    -5.39   0.000    -.0528185   -.0237031
          17  |  -.0387698   .0078232    -4.96   0.000    -.0548217   -.0227179
              |
     dummrace |
           2  |   .0682115   .0034626    19.70   0.000     .0611069     .075316
           3  |   .0084065   .0036133     2.33   0.028     .0009926    .0158204
           4  |   .0143703   .0030856     4.66   0.000     .0080393    .0207014
              |
       2.dmar |   .0324672     .00117    27.75   0.000     .0300665    .0348679
       2.csex |  -.0087205   .0008703   -10.02   0.000    -.0105062   -.0069348
4.dumbirorder |  -.1525281   .0091189   -16.73   0.000    -.1712385   -.1338176
conceptmodate |   .0002491   .0000394     6.32   0.000     .0001682      .00033
        _cons |    -.01957   .0248677    -0.79   0.438    -.0705943    .0314542
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
      sigma_u |  .02551021
      sigma_e |  .30501554
          rho |  .00694635   (fraction of variance due to u_i)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fixed-effects (within) regression               Number of obs     =    415,258
Group variable: cntyrfip                        Number of groups  =         28

R-sq:                                           Obs per group:
     within  =      .                                         min =        536
     between =      .                                         avg =   14,830.6
     overall =      .                                         max =     97,957

                                                F(0,27)           =          .
corr(u_i, Xb)  =      .                         Prob > F          =          .

                               (Std. Err. adjusted for 28 clusters in cntyrfip)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              |               Robust
         csec |      Coef.   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
     emptopop |          0  (omitted)
              |
      dummage |
           2  |          0  (omitted)
           3  |          0  (omitted)
           4  |          0  (omitted)
              |
       dmeduc |
           1  |          0  (omitted)
           2  |          0  (omitted)
           3  |          0  (omitted)
           4  |          0  (omitted)
           5  |          0  (omitted)
           6  |          0  (omitted)
           7  |          0  (omitted)
           8  |          0  (omitted)
           9  |          0  (omitted)
          10  |          0  (omitted)
          11  |          0  (omitted)
          12  |          0  (omitted)
          13  |          0  (omitted)
          14  |          0  (omitted)
          15  |          0  (omitted)
          16  |          0  (omitted)
          17  |          0  (omitted)
              |
     dummrace |
           2  |          0  (omitted)
           3  |          0  (omitted)
           4  |          0  (omitted)
              |
       2.dmar |          0  (omitted)
       2.csex |          0  (omitted)
4.dumbirorder |          0  (omitted)
conceptmodate |          0  (omitted)
        _cons |          0  (omitted)
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
      sigma_u |          0
      sigma_e |          0
          rho |          .   (fraction of variance due to u_i)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fixed-effects (within) regression               Number of obs     =    415,258
Group variable: cntyrfip                        Number of groups  =         28

R-sq:                                           Obs per group:
     within  = 0.1525                                         min =        536
     between = 0.5075                                         avg =   14,830.6
     overall = 0.1613                                         max =     97,957

                                                F(27,27)          =          .
corr(u_i, Xb)  = 0.0055                         Prob > F          =          .

                               (Std. Err. adjusted for 28 clusters in cntyrfip)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              |               Robust
      nprevis |      Coef.   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
     emptopop |  -1.909821   3.595874    -0.53   0.600    -9.287944    5.468302
              |
      dummage |
           2  |    .819195   .0677186    12.10   0.000     .6802479    .9581422
           3  |   1.592506   .0703909    22.62   0.000     1.448076    1.736936
           4  |   1.838432   .0741365    24.80   0.000     1.686316    1.990547
              |
       dmeduc |
           1  |   .9760593   .3967149     2.46   0.021     .1620674    1.790051
           2  |   .7211828   .1885137     3.83   0.001     .3343847    1.107981
           3  |   .8592792   .4071324     2.11   0.044     .0239126    1.694646
           4  |   .9825091   .3128487     3.14   0.004     .3405965    1.624422
           5  |   .9184139   .3094473     2.97   0.006     .2834804    1.553347
           6  |   1.243555    .459368     2.71   0.012     .3010099    2.186101
           7  |   1.986289   .5034672     3.95   0.001     .9532593    3.019318
           8  |   2.233033   .5824491     3.83   0.001     1.037947     3.42812
           9  |   2.199378   .5549521     3.96   0.000      1.06071    3.338045
          10  |   2.760089   .5764386     4.79   0.000     1.577334    3.942843
          11  |   2.874429   .6213346     4.63   0.000     1.599556    4.149303
          12  |   3.712736   .6371179     5.83   0.000     2.405478    5.019994
          13  |   4.105504   .6737145     6.09   0.000     2.723156    5.487852
          14  |   4.233067   .6717071     6.30   0.000     2.854838    5.611296
          15  |   4.240404   .6982558     6.07   0.000     2.807701    5.673106
          16  |   4.405252    .696915     6.32   0.000       2.9753    5.835203
          17  |   4.456904   .7533609     5.92   0.000     2.911135    6.002673
              |
     dummrace |
           2  |  -.7893785   .0684183   -11.54   0.000    -.9297612   -.6489959
           3  |  -1.095532   .1876042    -5.84   0.000    -1.480464      -.7106
           4  |  -1.006129   .0555952   -18.10   0.000    -1.120201   -.8920574
              |
       2.dmar |  -1.592861   .0685017   -23.25   0.000    -1.733415   -1.452307
       2.csex |   .0508665   .0097061     5.24   0.000     .0309511    .0707818
4.dumbirorder |  -1.412481   .4557176    -3.10   0.004    -2.347536   -.4774254
conceptmodate |   .0170811   .0034858     4.90   0.000     .0099288    .0242334
        _cons |   1.180458   1.121609     1.05   0.302    -1.120894     3.48181
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
      sigma_u |  .73037114
      sigma_e |  4.1227098
          rho |  .03042992   (fraction of variance due to u_i)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
areg:
Code:
    foreach yvar in birthwt pretermbir csec nprevis{
        xtreg `yvar' emptopop i.dummage i.dmeduc i.dummrace i.dmar i.csex i.dumbirorder, absorb(conceptmodate) cluster(cntyrfip)
    }
Output:
Code:
Linear regression, absorbing indicators         Number of obs     =    415,258
                                                F(  27,     27)   =    1328.66
                                                Prob > F          =     0.0000
                                                R-squared         =     0.2888
                                                Adj R-squared     =     0.2853
                                                Root MSE          =     0.2011

                               (Std. Err. adjusted for 28 clusters in cntyrfip)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              |               Robust
      birthwt |      Coef.   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
     emptopop |   .0008996   .0070898     0.13   0.900    -.0136474    .0154466
              |
      dummage |
           2  |  -.0047123   .0012823    -3.67   0.001    -.0073435   -.0020812
           3  |   .0000784   .0015011     0.05   0.959    -.0030015    .0031583
           4  |   .0076676   .0019832     3.87   0.001     .0035984    .0117368
              |
       dmeduc |
           1  |  -.0038257    .010759    -0.36   0.725    -.0259014      .01825
           2  |  -.0139574   .0073547    -1.90   0.068     -.029048    .0011331
           3  |  -.0135079    .006974    -1.94   0.063    -.0278174    .0008015
           4  |  -.0108141   .0083696    -1.29   0.207     -.027987    .0063588
           5  |  -.0042134   .0051607    -0.82   0.421    -.0148022    .0063754
           6  |  -.0105367   .0046365    -2.27   0.031      -.02005   -.0010234
           7  |  -.0050185   .0071526    -0.70   0.489    -.0196944    .0096575
           8  |  -.0067927   .0069436    -0.98   0.337    -.0210397    .0074544
           9  |  -.0041783   .0052189    -0.80   0.430    -.0148867    .0065301
          10  |  -.0031763   .0052651    -0.60   0.551    -.0139794    .0076267
          11  |  -.0041207   .0052407    -0.79   0.439    -.0148738    .0066323
          12  |  -.0102089   .0056143    -1.82   0.080    -.0217285    .0013108
          13  |  -.0136341   .0058264    -2.34   0.027    -.0255888   -.0016794
          14  |  -.0156871   .0052049    -3.01   0.006    -.0263667   -.0050076
          15  |  -.0164624   .0066196    -2.49   0.019    -.0300447   -.0028802
          16  |  -.0187018   .0059169    -3.16   0.004    -.0308422   -.0065615
          17  |  -.0186256   .0060682    -3.07   0.005    -.0310765   -.0061747
              |
     dummrace |
           2  |   .0223933   .0011831    18.93   0.000     .0199659    .0248207
           3  |  -.0082914   .0009647    -8.59   0.000    -.0102708    -.006312
           4  |   .0055149   .0019515     2.83   0.009     .0015107    .0095191
              |
       2.dmar |   .0104538    .001398     7.48   0.000     .0075853    .0133223
       2.csex |   .0135626   .0006175    21.96   0.000     .0122956    .0148296
4.dumbirorder |  -.0188707   .0078462    -2.41   0.023    -.0349698   -.0027716
        _cons |   .0634819   .0058863    10.78   0.000     .0514042    .0755596
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
conceptmodate |   absorbed                                    (1985 categories)

Linear regression, absorbing indicators         Number of obs     =    415,258
                                                F(   0,     27)   =          .
                                                Prob > F          =          .
                                                R-squared         =     1.0000
                                                Adj R-squared     =     1.0000
                                                Root MSE          =     0.0000

                               (Std. Err. adjusted for 28 clusters in cntyrfip)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              |               Robust
   pretermbir |      Coef.   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
     emptopop |          0  (omitted)
              |
      dummage |
           2  |          0  (omitted)
           3  |          0  (omitted)
           4  |          0  (omitted)
              |
       dmeduc |
           1  |          0  (omitted)
           2  |          0  (omitted)
           3  |          0  (omitted)
           4  |          0  (omitted)
           5  |          0  (omitted)
           6  |          0  (omitted)
           7  |          0  (omitted)
           8  |          0  (omitted)
           9  |          0  (omitted)
          10  |          0  (omitted)
          11  |          0  (omitted)
          12  |          0  (omitted)
          13  |          0  (omitted)
          14  |          0  (omitted)
          15  |          0  (omitted)
          16  |          0  (omitted)
          17  |          0  (omitted)
              |
     dummrace |
           2  |          0  (omitted)
           3  |          0  (omitted)
           4  |          0  (omitted)
              |
       2.dmar |          0  (omitted)
       2.csex |          0  (omitted)
4.dumbirorder |          0  (omitted)
        _cons |   .1056115          .        .       .            .           .
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
conceptmodate |   absorbed                                    (1985 categories)

Linear regression, absorbing indicators         Number of obs     =    415,258
                                                F(   0,     27)   =          .
                                                Prob > F          =          .
                                                Root MSE          =     0.0000

                               (Std. Err. adjusted for 28 clusters in cntyrfip)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              |               Robust
         csec |      Coef.   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
     emptopop |          0  (omitted)
              |
      dummage |
           2  |          0  (omitted)
           3  |          0  (omitted)
           4  |          0  (omitted)
              |
       dmeduc |
           1  |          0  (omitted)
           2  |          0  (omitted)
           3  |          0  (omitted)
           4  |          0  (omitted)
           5  |          0  (omitted)
           6  |          0  (omitted)
           7  |          0  (omitted)
           8  |          0  (omitted)
           9  |          0  (omitted)
          10  |          0  (omitted)
          11  |          0  (omitted)
          12  |          0  (omitted)
          13  |          0  (omitted)
          14  |          0  (omitted)
          15  |          0  (omitted)
          16  |          0  (omitted)
          17  |          0  (omitted)
              |
     dummrace |
           2  |          0  (omitted)
           3  |          0  (omitted)
           4  |          0  (omitted)
              |
       2.dmar |          0  (omitted)
       2.csex |          0  (omitted)
4.dumbirorder |          0  (omitted)
        _cons |          0  (omitted)
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
conceptmodate |   absorbed                                    (1985 categories)

Linear regression, absorbing indicators         Number of obs     =    415,258
                                                F(  27,     27)   = 7839401.62
                                                Prob > F          =     0.0000
                                                R-squared         =     0.1825
                                                Adj R-squared     =     0.1785
                                                Root MSE          =     4.1466

                               (Std. Err. adjusted for 28 clusters in cntyrfip)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
              |               Robust
      nprevis |      Coef.   Std. Err.      t    P>|t|     [95% Conf. Interval]
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
     emptopop |   .3913594   .8524499     0.46   0.650    -1.357723    2.140442
              |
      dummage |
           2  |   .6713209   .0607689    11.05   0.000     .5466333    .7960085
           3  |   1.440154   .0822093    17.52   0.000     1.271474    1.608833
           4  |    1.77644   .0759003    23.40   0.000     1.620705    1.932174
              |
       dmeduc |
           1  |   .9436234   .3958303     2.38   0.024     .1314466      1.7558
           2  |   .7093487   .2250707     3.15   0.004     .2475418    1.171156
           3  |   .7419543   .4287262     1.73   0.095    -.1377193    1.621628
           4  |   .8791356   .3429686     2.56   0.016     .1754221    1.582849
           5  |   .7503109   .3432982     2.19   0.038     .0459211    1.454701
           6  |   .9775896   .5125862     1.91   0.067    -.0741503     2.02933
           7  |   1.878452   .5276921     3.56   0.001     .7957174    2.961187
           8  |   2.154712   .6022926     3.58   0.001       .91891    3.390515
           9  |   2.084571   .5881248     3.54   0.001     .8778384    3.291303
          10  |   2.711758    .595407     4.55   0.000     1.490084    3.933432
          11  |   2.848627      .6411     4.44   0.000     1.533199    4.164056
          12  |   3.694534   .6486478     5.70   0.000     2.363619    5.025449
          13  |   4.072212   .6832652     5.96   0.000     2.670267    5.474156
          14  |   4.190809   .6825376     6.14   0.000     2.790358    5.591261
          15  |   4.169677   .7214367     5.78   0.000     2.689411    5.649943
          16  |   4.374855   .6988821     6.26   0.000     2.940867    5.808842
          17  |   4.464445   .7446155     6.00   0.000      2.93662     5.99227
              |
     dummrace |
           2  |  -.7008378   .0501316   -13.98   0.000    -.8036994   -.5979761
           3  |  -1.135264   .3336207    -3.40   0.002    -1.819797   -.4507306
           4  |  -.9966281   .0519124   -19.20   0.000    -1.103144   -.8901126
              |
       2.dmar |  -1.558454   .0886083   -17.59   0.000    -1.740264   -1.376645
       2.csex |   .0359697   .0105536     3.41   0.002     .0143155    .0576239
4.dumbirorder |  -1.361785   .4532831    -3.00   0.006    -2.291845   -.4317251
        _cons |   6.885657   .6308294    10.92   0.000     5.591302    8.180012
--------------+----------------------------------------------------------------
conceptmodate |   absorbed                                    (1985 categories)
reghdfe generates similar output to areg.

Now, my questions are:

1. Depending on my data and model, shall I choose xtreg or areg? If choosing xtreg, how should I setup my panal variable and time variable in xtset.

2. Neither xtreg and areg generate ideal results: how do I deal with omitted variables and insignificant coefficients? While I understand it's common, but if it is because of the mishandling of the data of the misusing the command in Statal, what could be possible reasons and how should I debug? I can't change the model.

Thanks and any inputs are greatly appreciated!!