Hi Statalist.

I am using annual survey responses on marital status from a panel study (for each partner in a couple - married/cohabitation) for my analysis. Around 0.8% of responses are missing and I want to replace the missing values with lagged values (for the given partner) or those of the other partner if these are also missing - it is not uncommon that only one in the couple answers this question. Sometimes individuals in a couple miss answering this question in a given year(s). Is this approach reasonable, particularly if there are lagged values and future values and these are the same?

I'm sure my draft code does not achieve what I want it to, so help here is appreciated (mrcurr1 - marital status of male partner); mrcurr2 - marital status of female partner)
Code:
bys id (wave): replace mrcurr1 = L.mrcurr1 if missing(mrcurr1)  
bys id (wave): replace mrcurr1 = L.mrcurr2 if missing(mrcurr1) // in case the current wave response is missing for both
bys id (wave): replace mrcurr2 = L.mrcurr2 if missing(mrcurr2)
bys id (wave): replace mrcurr2 = L.mrcurr1 if missing(mrcurr2)
Sample data:
Code:
* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input long(id p_id) byte(wave mrcurr1 mrcurr2)
11  61  8 . 2
11  61 12 . 2
11  61 13 . 2
11  61 14 . 2
11  61 15 . 2
11  61 16 . 2
11  61 17 . 2
11  61 18 . 2
13  60 12 . 1
13  60 13 . 1
13  60 14 . 1
13  60 15 . 1
13  60 16 . 1
13  60 17 . 1
13  60 18 . 1
16  64  8 2 .
16  64  9 2 .
16  64 10 2 .
16  64 11 1 .
16  64 12 1 .
16  64 13 1 .
16  64 14 1 .
16  64 15 1 .
16  64 16 1 .
16  64 17 1 .
16  64 18 1 .
23  24  6 . .
23  24  7 . .
23  24  8 . .
23  24  9 . .
23  24 10 . .
23  24 11 . .
23  24 12 . .
end