[R-sig-ME] lmer estimation with repeated identifiers

[Yashree Mehta]

Hi,

I am working with a random intercept model on a cluster dataset (Repeated
measurements of plots per household). I have the usual "X" vector
of covariates and one id variable which will make up the random
intercept. For example,

Response variable: Production of a crop
Covariates: Size, input quantities, soil fertility dummies etc..
ID variable: Household_ID

Now one aspect of my data is that for some cases, the same plot is repeated
within a household due to different seasons. So this would leave me with
duplicate occurrence of the combination of household ID and plot ID.

My question is: Is the treatment of such data different than the
traditional panel data random effects (because to specify random effects
one has to specify a unique combination of household and plot for every
observation). Is the MLE of lmer different than random effects in such a
case? I tried to compare the two but random effects estimation cannot be
implemented with such data.

Thank you,

Regards,
Yashree

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