Fixed Effects Regression Methods for Longitudinal Data Using SAS

1.1. The Promise of Fixed Effects for Nonexperimental Research

Every empirical researcher knows that randomized experiments have major advantages over observational studies in making causal inferences. Randomization of subjects to different treatment conditions ensures that the treatment groups, on average, are identical with respect to all possible characteristics of the subjects, regardless of whether those characteristics can be measured or not. If the subjects are people, for example, the treatment groups produced by randomization will be approximately equal with respect to such easily measured variables as race, sex, and age, and also approximately equal for more problematic variables like intelligence, aggressiveness, and creativity.