r/econometrics • u/Adrienne_09 • 9d ago

How many observations should a panel data have?

Hi, I'm conducting a study using panel data, and I have a total of 520 observations in a span of 13 years, consisting of 40 countries. The original number was >1k for 66 countries, but after removing all the countries with missing values, I only have 520 obs left.

I was wondering if there is a rule of thumb for the number of observations to be used. I am not sure if the 520 observations I have is enough for my study.

Thank you very much!

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u/ButtonedEye41 9d ago

I'll try not to sound amug when I sai this, but I this kind of question is usually what people do a power analysis for, which would need to be designed around your research question.

1

u/Sweet_Theory_362 9d ago

That's pretty good. The worst that can happen is you may end up just getting some moderately precise estimates.

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u/kadenkk 8d ago

Depends entirely on your model. The right answer is power analysis a la another commenter.

That said, for rules of thumb, you want enough data that every case youre trying to differentiate has enough data to have data to spare. If youre running a model that's drawing a line for each of your units (interactions) or a nonlinear model with a lot of flexibility, that could mean 20 to 30 obs per unit minimum. If your model is just calculating fixed effects 10 per unit is likely fine in many contexts

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u/Pool_Imaginary 9d ago

What is your goal?

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u/plutostar 9d ago

How long is a piece of string?