PGE Frequently Asked Questions

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How to . . .

Wait, how can I download the data again?

First, click on this link. Scroll down past the description until you see a list of files. The dataset is a .zip file, the latest version will be listed first. Clicking on…

I’m using an older version of Stata, and it won’t open the file. How can I use the PGE data?

Stata 13 introduced a new file format which older versions of Stata can’t open. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix: the use13 command. In…

I imported the pge_summary.csv file, and the data for some countries seem to be greater than one, when the PGE supposedly ranges only from zero to one. How can I interpret these data?

The issue here is that the pge_summary.csv file is saved using RFC 4180 csv conventions, that is, with a dot marking the decimal and a comma separating values. If you are in a locale that observes different conventions—many countries…

How can I use the PGE data with Stata’s time-series operators?

To use Stata’s time-series operators (l. , f. , d. , etc.), you must first declare the time and panel variables using tsset, but the PGE is already mi…

How can I use the PGE data to make my own graphs?

The PGE download contains…

How can I merge my other data into the PGE using ISO or other country codes?

First, add whatever country codes are needed to the PGE data: there are routines for both Stata (kountry; type findit kountry in Stata’s command…

The PGE Data

What about Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union? Yugoslavia? Czechoslovakia? Pakistan? Sudan? Ethiopia? Why are there estimates for successor states before they actually existed?

For countries that have undergone partition, the PGE estimates for a given year include all of the origin country’s then-current territories. This…

The estimates for Ruritania, among others, have changed since the previous version. Why is that?

There are two reasons why estimates change from one version of the PGE to the next. The first reason is that we have incorporated new source survey…

How is Germany treated in the PGE? Where’s East Germany?

Germany is West Germany only before 1991 and (united) Germany from that point forward.…