Hi all, I am new here and I wish to thank you for your help during these years of university.

I am considering of using pane data for my master thesis, but I wish to focus on regional difference in Italy. I am using EUSILC data: only individual personal data, not household information.
In the dataset, the variable for region is nuts 2, that is, I have macroregions (north east, north west, south, centre). My research questions are the following:
Does education influence the likelihood of getting an open-ended job? If so, how does it changes over time and across the Italian regions? Which other factors can have an effect on getting an open-ended job?

Besides EUSILC data, I will also include some (max 2) variables at the regional level.
Here is my question: how should I consider regions in a panel analysis? Should I create dummy variables or can I leave the variable region as it is (4 categories)?

Any comments and documents about the topic are very welcomed!