Statistical Research Report
Due Date: Thursday, November 21. If you have questions or problems along the way, please ask me for
help (come to office hours or set up a separate appointment – meeting in person is usually more
efficient and helpful)
Objectives:
 To connect ideas from this course to information and issues you will encounter in real life.
 Get practice collecting and preparing data relevant to a topic of study.
 Get practice using statistical methods to analyze data.
 Get practice writing a clear and concise report describing your sources, the data calculations you
performed, the results you obtained and your interpretations of them.
Overview:
Collect a data set on a subject that interests you. Decide on some question you’d like to answer using
this data set. You may wish to select a question of interest first, and then find data to answer it.
Using the data you’ve collected, use Excel and PHStat, if needed, to compute statistics describing the
data set (mean, median, standard deviation) and present the data in a way that helps you determine the
shape. Include any charts or tables that may add insight to the question you are asking. Use any
hypothesis testing methods, probability calculations, or other statistical methods covered in this class to
analyze your data and gain insight into the issue you are studying. Write up the results in a polished
paper. Be sure to include your interpretations of what the data is telling you.
You can do the homework assignments individually or in pairs. If you work with a partner, both of you
should contribute equally to the assignment. Both partners should carefully proofread the paper before
it is submitted, and both partners are responsible for the quality of the entire paper. If you have
problems co-operating with your partner, let me know immediately.
Details:
The data set you use should have at least 30 cases, and one numerical variable. Don’t limit your
population of interest to 30 cases just because I required a data set of at least 30 cases; try to get as
much of the full population as feasible. If the data is on state sales tax rates in the U.S., collect data on
all 50 states. The data should be cross-section (measured in a given period or at a point in time). Don’t
use time series data, that is, data where the cases are subsequent fixed periods of time (such as annual
GDP, 1950–2015). There are some bias issues with time series data that we will not go over how to deal
with in this class — best to just not use time series data for this project. If you are in doubt whether the
data set you chose is appropriate for this assignment, check with me before you start your work.
Make sure you understand the meaning of the variables and how they are defined for the dataset you
choose. Most government-collected data will have information on questions asked or how a variable is
defined. Make sure the data are comparable across subjects/countries/survey respondents. For
example, don’t use GDP in national currencies for all countries of the world, because in that case
Afghanistan’s GDP will be measured in Afghani, Albania’s GDP in Lek, etc., and the numbers will be
incomparable; use GDP expressed in a common currency (like the US dollar)
College of the Canyons Econ 291
Rebecca Acosta Fall 2019
Here are some examples of data you can use for this assignment:
Social, economic, or demographic data:
 International Data:
o World Bank, World Development Report www.worldbank.org/wdr/
o United Nations, Human Development Report http://hdr.undp.org/ en/
o United Nations Statistics Division http://unstats.un.org/unsd/default. htm
o United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database http://comtrade. un.org/
o United Nations, International Trade Statistics Yearbook http://comtrade. un.org/pb/
o CIA, CIA World Fact Book https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/ the-worldfactbook/index.html) (select: Guide to Country Comparisons)
 Federal Government: https://www.data.gov/; https://www.usa.gov/statistics
o Census – many economic and demographic surveys: https://www.census.gov
o Bureau of Labor Statistics – jobs, employment: https://www.bls.gov/
o Federal Reserve Bank – financial, economic data:
https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres.htm
o Securities and Exchange Commission – stock data, company filings:
https://www.sec.gov/data, EDGAR
 State Government: https://data.ca.gov/
o State Board of Equalization – tax and sales data: https://www.boe.ca.gov/DataPortal/
o Health and Human Services: https://data.chhs.ca.gov/
o CA Department of Education: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/
 County Data – https://data.lacounty.gov/
 School Districts
The data does not have to be business or economics related. The purpose is to show you know how to
use and analyze data of any kind. Examples of other data you can use include
 Sports data, such as the performance of an NBA player during each game of a recent season
(nba.com) There are lots of sports-related data on websites for various leagues and events.
 Trade organizations may have industry data (though many charge fees)
 Collect your own! Be aware of how you conduct your sampling and how this might affect your
results.
Your report should focus on explaining the nature and results of the study in terms of the concepts and
language we have been developing in this course. ( Note: If you choose data from a published report,
please do your own original analysis and interpretations. Avoid using quotes from the report to support
your conclusions–for this project, rely on your own analysis of the data using concepts learned in class.)
Here are some specific questions you might address:
 What broad question is being addressed by the study?
 Does your data cover a whole population or just a sample? If a sample, what kind of sampling
was used? How might the sampling technique affect your results?
 What kinds of variables are in the data? Are these the best variables and formats to answer the
question being addressed? Would transforming a variable give you more useful data?
 What types of statistics and statistical methods or tests would best for answering your
question?
College of the Canyons Econ 291
Rebecca Acosta Fall 2019
Specific requirements: Your paper should be written with the following requirements:
 Report length should be two to three pages long, not counting charts, tables, graphs.
 Use standard letter paper with reasonable margins and a readable font size (11 or 12 pt).
 Use double or one-and-a-half line spacing to allow room for me to write comments.
 Be sure to thoroughly cite your data sources. Provide link to the data source and describe what
variables you used from it.
 Include any data tables, charts, and/or graphs you feel would help show your analysis and/or
your methods.
Rubric: Maximum of 50 points total.
Define: Clearly explain question or issue to be addressed in the paper (2 points)
Data Collection (7 points)
 Source (why appropriate, trustworthy? any issues?)
 Sample/population
 Variables
Data Organization (2 points)
did you do anything to make the data more usable? change variable type or format? Check for
outliers? Variables well defined? Explain how variables will help you answer your question/address
your issue of concern.
Data Visualization (7 points): Was data presented in a clear way that added to reader understanding?
Analysis (20 points)
 Descriptive Statistics : correctly calculated, relevant statistics chosen. Do the statistics/charts
indicate a particular shape for certain variables, or a relation between two variables? Written
analysis of statistics is clear and furthers understanding of main issue paper is addressing. All
relevant tables, charts included.
 Other statistical inferences, hypothesis tests, regressions, etc. to help you analyze the data and
address your main issue. Include descriptions of everything you did, why it was relevant and
your analysis of any results.
Conclusions (6 points):
 Reasonable and clear managerial interpretations based on analysis results.
 Suggestions for further research or improvements (given more time, resources)
Paper-Writing Basics: (5 points):
 Formatting (2 points): Double/1.5 spaced, paragraphs indented, pages numbered, etc. All
tables and figures should be numbered, with a title for easy reference.
 Grammar, style, and spelling (1 point): Are grammar and spelling correct? Was the paper
carefully proofread? Does the narrative flow well, develop logically? Are introductions,
transitions, subconclusions, conclusions convincing?
 Structure (1 point) Does the structure do justice to the exigencies of the topic? Is the paper
organized into coherent subsections which, when integrated, form a logical sequence of
arguments leading directly to the conclusions?
 Documentation (1 point) Are all data sources and cites carefully documented?