Analyze Across Time (Longitudinal)

Use the Analyze Across Time feature to analyze a variable or a few variables across time for one or a few countries. From the Main Menu: choose Data Analysis then click Analyze Across Time (Longitudinal).

There are a number of options and features that alter how the Analyze Across Time feature is used. Always select at least one variable and one country or there will be not data to plot. Choose a variable (or two if you are using As Points or As Time) from the variable drop down then click Select, then select at least one country using the Select Countries button, and lastly click Plot to analyze. When selecting a variable prior to clicking Select another option Data Information will be available; click to open information on the data source and availability of the data in different years.

An example of the Analyze Across Time page.

Use these features and options to assist in analysis:

• Treatment of Time: Choose how to treat time and whether to display more than one variable
  • As Independent Variable: Plot one variable across time.
  • As Points: Plot two variables, with x and y axis representing one variable, and each point representing a year. Points will be numbered with the first year as 1 and each year after increasing by one.
  • As Time: Plot two variables across time. This feature is most useful when variables share similar units.
• Independent Variable and Dependent Variable: Click on desired choice before choosing a variable; only one option will be shown when using As Independent Variable.
• Show Variable Name Subset: Choose the variable category like Health or International Politics to refine the search.
• Other Filters: Choose Used for Initialization to only select variables that are used in the model preprocessor, choose variables with At least 10 Data Points, choose variables with data At least through 2020, or choose All to display all variables.
• Use Nulls as Zeros or Ignore Nulls: Choose to display years with no available data as zero or to ignore those years.
• Select Countries or Select Groups: Choose groups or countries to display data for. This option is explained further below.
• Plot: Create a plot of the chosen variables. The plot option is explained further below.
• Continue: Go back to the previous menu or to the Main Menu of IFs.
• Use Groups or Use Countries: Switch between using groups or countries; the option to switch to will be displayed.
• Computations: Create a computation for a new variable list to use for data analysis. Follow the steps from the Computations section of Self Managed Display except choose a year when prompted.
• Table: Open a Table Display of the currently selected variable for the selected countries or all countries if non are selected. This feature is only available when using the As Independent Variable option of Treatment of Time.
• Search: Open a search page to search and choose variables. The search option is explained further in the Analyze Across Countries page.
• Help: Open the corresponding page in the Pardee Wiki with the current feature or display they are using.

Select Countries or Groups

Use this option to choose the country(s) and or group(s) to display. Choose the desired country or group to display then use the arrow pointing toward the selections box to add it as a selection. Click on a country or group in the selections box and use the arrow pointing away to remove a selection. Add both countries and groups to the selection box by clicking on an option below the selection box: Country/Regions, Groups, or Decomp. Groups; this will change the selection choices box.

An example of the Select Countries option from the Analyze Across Time page.

Plot

Use the Plot option to visualize how variables change overtime and their relations with each other. Depending on the choice of Treatment of Time the plot option will look different. Some plots may have variables on both the X and Y axis, others may have time on the X axis and variables on the other. All plots have options and features that can alter the way data is displayed.

An example of the Plot option from the Analyze Across Time page, for Belize and GDP.

These options and features vary between plot but may include:

• Continue: Go back to the previous menu or to the Main Menu of IFs.
• Main Menu: Go back to the Main Menu of IFs.
• Scaling: When plotting two variables use this option to set the scaling between variable units.
  • Common: Scales to a common measure, with 1 representing the largest observation of both variables.
  • Scale: Scales to the most recent variable chosen.
• View Table: Open the data displayed on the plot in table display.
• Trend: Add a trend line to fit the data being plotted.
  • Choose between Linear, Polynomial, Logarithmic, Exponential, S-Curve, or Extrapolation Setup to customize the function relationship.
• Display Format:
  • Set Title, Display Interval, or Year: Edit specific display features for the plot such as axis titles and ranges.
  • Format Legend Labels: Change the legend format or labels.
• Help: Open the corresponding page in the Pardee Wiki with the current feature or display they are using.