Hello everyone,

I am working with panel data describing company code as id variable and financial year as time variable. The dependend variable (patents), as well as the independent variable (Numberofmergers) are complete within the observed time window (2000-2010). However, there are multiple (random) missing values within my moderator and control variable (xrdintensity and ln_emp) within the mentioned time window.
My general question on this is: How are these missing values handled by Stata? Are Panels with missing values omitted as a whole? Or does Stata conduct the regression within a smaller observation window, if possible?
If I had to exclude every panel with 1 or more missing value(s) in my Dataset, this would radically reduce the size of my Dataset.
Best regards and thank you in advance for your time

Christopher

Code:
* Example generated by -dataex-. For more info, type help dataex
clear
input double(PERMNO YearEffective) int patents float(xrdintensity ln_emp) int AcquirorPrimarySICCode str4 curcd byte Numberofmergers
10078 2000  463    .116026  3.686376 3577 "USD" 0
10078 2001  434  .11512018 3.7999735 3577 "USD" 1
10078 2002  500  .11106404   3.69883 3577 "USD" 4
10078 2003  564  .14177898  3.613617 3577 "USD" 3
10078 2004  679   .1376267  3.514526 3577 "USD" 0
10078 2005  653  .12579282  3.465736 3577 "USD" 0
10078 2006  775  .13963665 3.6635616 3577 "USD" 0
10078 2007  606  .12678368  3.561046 3577 "USD" 0
10078 2008  508  .13005579  3.580737 3577 "USD" 0
10078 2009  562  .14699075 3.4011974 3577 "USD" 0
10104 2000   77  .10322525  3.782529 7372 "USD" 0
10104 2001   67  .09962963   3.76134 7372 "USD" 0
10104 2002   87   .1066522 3.7293015 7372 "USD" 0
10104 2003   86   .1001332  3.753215 7372 "USD" 0
10104 2004   99  .07429787  3.929313 7372 "USD" 1
10104 2005   94   .0671742  4.045382 7372 "USD" 3
10104 2006  179  .06785838 4.3264346 7372 "USD" 0
10104 2007  169  .05849623  4.445389 7372 "USD" 0
10104 2008  199  .05856673  4.465908 7372 "USD" 1
10104 2009  207  .05284355 4.6634393 7372 "USD" 0
10104 2010  305  .06145373  4.691348 7372 "USD" 0
10107 2000  342 .072387345 3.6913764 7372 "USD" 1
10107 2001  396  .07389844 3.8836236 7372 "USD" 0
10107 2002  499  .06366969  3.941582 7372 "USD" 1
10107 2003  499  .05855148 4.0253515 7372 "USD" 1
10107 2004  629  .08419833  4.060443 7372 "USD" 0
10107 2005  746  .08732613 4.1271343 7372 "USD" 3
10107 2006 1459  .09460178  4.276666 7372 "USD" 3
10107 2007 1632  .11272578 4.3820267 7372 "USD" 0
10107 2008 2018  .11215364 4.5217886 7372 "USD" 1
10107 2009 2901  .11567892  4.543295 7372 "USD" 1
10107 2010 2743  .10119262 4.4998097 7372 "USD" 0
10147 2000  149  .07368656  3.222868 3572 "USD" 1
10147 2001  138   .0939065  3.049273 3572 "USD" 1
10147 2002  147  .08148286  2.912351 3572 "USD" 0
10147 2003  151  .05304885 3.0445225 3572 "USD" 1
10147 2004  143   .0561048  3.165475 3572 "USD" 2
10147 2005  140  .06088182  3.314186 3572 "USD" 1
10147 2006  166  .06945954  3.468856 3572 "USD" 4
10147 2007  177  .06857087   3.65584 3572 "USD" 1
10147 2008  193  .07569182  3.763523 3572 "USD" 0
10147 2009  260  .06070076  3.788725 3572 "USD" 0
10147 2010  279  .06123302  3.901973 3572 "USD" 0
10302 2000  113  .07810763 1.6928595 3674 "USD" 1
10302 2001  107  .15411177 1.6409366 3674 "USD" 2
10302 2002  122  .18445005 1.6294366 3674 "USD" 1
10302 2003  183   .1604035 1.6160163 3674 "USD" 0
10302 2004  175   .1762429  1.704748 3674 "USD" 0
10302 2005  149  .14079961 1.8082888 3674 "USD" 1
10302 2006  162  .11495226 1.9169226 3674 "USD" 0
10302 2007  114  .05297389 2.1860514 3674 "USD" 0
10302 2008  105   .2068327 1.6292405 3674 "USD" 0
10302 2009   62  .19856155 1.5260563 3674 "USD" 0
10302 2010  119  .16481714 1.5040774 3674 "USD" 0
10696 2000    0          .   2.70805 7374 "USD" 0
10696 2001    0          .   2.95491 7374 "USD" 1
10696 2002    0          .  3.015535 7374 "USD" 0
10696 2003    0          .  3.122365 7374 "USD" 0
10696 2004    0          .  3.135494 7374 "USD" 0
10696 2005    0          .  3.135494 7374 "USD" 0
10696 2006    0          .  3.178054 7374 "USD" 1
10696 2007    0          . 3.2580965 7374 "USD" 0
10696 2008    1          . 3.0445225 7374 "USD" 0
10696 2009    0          . 3.0445225 7374 "USD" 0
10696 2010    2          .  2.995732 7374 "USD" 0
11403 2000   11  .17900307  1.894617 7372 "USD" 0
11403 2001   11   .1860511 1.8870697 7372 "USD" 1
11403 2002   21   .1530078  1.820509 7372 "USD" 1
11403 2003   41  .12336163  1.757858 7372 "USD" 3
11403 2004   56  .12621783 1.7749523 7372 "USD" 0
11403 2005   95  .11764284 1.7917595 7372 "USD" 0
11403 2006  116  .13389133 1.8245493 7372 "USD" 0
11403 2007   59  .12831071 1.8405496 7372 "USD" 1
11403 2008   68   .2731335 1.7749523 7372 "USD" 1
11403 2009   91  .25145772  1.686399 7372 "USD" 0
11403 2010  115  .21731396 1.7227666 7372 "USD" 0
11531 2000    0  .18822227 1.0130544 7372 "USD" 0
11531 2001    0   .2282132 1.0112373 7372 "USD" 0
11531 2002    1  .21989964  .9951019 7372 "USD" 1
11531 2003    0  .19663237 1.0006319 7372 "USD" 0
11531 2004    0  .15850393  .9582002 7372 "USD" 0
11531 2005    0  .13468757  .9913982 7372 "USD" 0
11552 2000    6  .15202783 .27459684 2834 "USD" 1
11552 2001   11   .1911199 .32425505 2834 "USD" 0
11552 2002    9   .4296657  .4446858 2834 "USD" 0
11552 2003    9  .15505424  .5181984 2834 "USD" 0
11552 2004    4  .14526598  .5687171 2834 "USD" 0
11552 2005    7  .15307905  .6647477 2834 "USD" 0
11552 2006   11  .09453244  .8272409 2834 "USD" 0
11552 2007    9  .11037348  .9876807 2834 "USD" 0
11552 2008   19   .6009125  1.235762 2834 "USD" 0
11552 2009   12  .14748602 1.3384163 2834 "USD" 0
11552 2010   12  .11088504  1.645191 2834 "USD" 0
11976 2000    9  .07735918 2.1198635 7373 "USD" 0
11976 2001    4  .17905986 1.9926574 7373 "USD" 0
11976 2002    3  .17638376 2.0619137 7373 "USD" 0
11976 2003    9  .19282055 2.0053914 7373 "USD" 0
11976 2004    6  .06867174 2.0674956 7373 "USD" 0
11976 2005    8  .06505964  1.974081 7373 "USD" 1
11976 2006   12   .0646319   1.94591 7373 "USD" 0
end