Hi Statalist.

I would like to test the effect of the combined level of education of each partner in a couple on finances, etc. At present I run regressions on the education level of partner 1 (educm) and partner 2 (educf):
Code:
xtreg totasset educm educf
however, if I want to test interaction effects of education with another variable, I current run these separately, but wanted to know if there is a more effective way? I thought of grouping these variables, but given there are seven levels of education, this leads to a variable with too many combinations.

I appreciate your thoughts/suggestions.
Code:
* Example generated by -dataex-. To install: ssc install dataex
clear
input byte(educm educf) float totasset
3 1   284289
1 3    55030
1 2     8700
3 3   313100
3 3   320038
1 1   180500
1 1   177500
5 7  4425050
5 7 11344318
4 1    66100
3 2   618133
3 2  1332300
3 3  1014100
2 2     7745
5 5   252088
5 5   427500
5 4  2735000
5 4   474850
7 4   863800
7 4  1233019
7 4  1265062
1 3   200506
end
label values educm educ1
label def educ1 1 "[1] up to 11 years (up to Year 11)", modify
label def educ1 2 "[2] 12 years (Year 12)", modify
label def educ1 3 "[3] 13 years (Cert 3/4)", modify
label def educ1 4 "[4] 14 years (Diploma/Adv Dip)", modify
label def educ1 5 "[5] 17-19 years (Bachelor/Honours)", modify
label def educ1 7 "[7] 20-25 years (Master, Doctorate)", modify
label values educf educ2
label def educ2 1 "[1] up to 11 years (up to Year 11)", modify
label def educ2 2 "[2] 12 years (Year 12)", modify
label def educ2 3 "[3] 13 years (Cert 3/4)", modify
label def educ2 4 "[4] 14 years (Diploma/Adv Dip)", modify
label def educ2 5 "[5] 17-19 years (Bachelor/Honours)", modify
label def educ2 7 "[7] 20-25 years (Master, Doctorate)", modify
Stata v.15.1. I am using panel data.