Hi

I am trying to construct a panel dataset comprised of yearly observations of import values for different countries. Also included other basic variables like GDP, employment etc.

All of the variables are measured at the country-year level, so there is one observation for country x in each year.

However, the import values are refined to different product codes (HS codes) in order to differentiate between different products which have been imported. The issue with this is that there are thousands of different HS codes, so the data isn't balanced. It basically shows different import values for different HS codes, at country x in year y. All of the other variables (GDP, Employment etc.) are just repeated for each observation of HS code in that year.

Is this an issue for an accurate regression? Would I need all of my variables at the country-year level and is it possible to collapse the import values to this level?

Thanks for your help.

James (total beginner if that isn't already obvious)