PanelWhiz plugins: automatic vector-oriented data cleaning for large scale panel datasets

Abstract

PanelWhiz plugins are modular data-cleaning programs for specific items in PanelWhiz. Each plugin is designed to recode, deflate, and change existing variables being extracted in a panel-data retrieval. Furthermore, new variables can be generated on the fly. The PanelWhiz plugin system is a macro language that uses new-style dialog boxes and Stata’s modularized class system, allowing a vector orientation for data cleaning. The PanelWhiz plugins can even be generated using a PanelWhiz plugin front-end, allowing users to create plugins but not have to write Stata code themselves. The system is set up to allow data cleaning of any PanelWhiz-supported dataset.