Methods, Data, Analyses 18 (2024), 1

The field of panel data research is still growing, addressing the need for research on innovative panel data collection methods as well as panel data analysis techniques. On the methodological side, the quality of panel data collection is challenged by issues such as panel conditioning (e.g., learning effects), the question of optimal lags for identifying causal effects, and high attrition rates that require missing value treatment techniques or weighting procedures. To further improve panel data analysis, research is needed on issues such as dealing with violations of the parallel assumption and heterogeneous growth, comparing different statistical approaches to panel data analysis, mediation analysis based on panel data, estimation of treatment effect dynamics and dealing with negative weighting bias, the challenges of dynamic panel models and the inclusion of bidirectional effects and lagged dependent variables, and continuous versus discrete time modeling, to name just a few current research issues.

This special issue contains applications to methodological issues and statistical problems in panel data analysis in a variety of content-related areas.