ECON-GA 1101 Section 003 - Class#: 4281 Fall 2014
Applied Statistics and Econometrics Data Report on Project – Due by 11:00pm on Tuesday November 25, 2014
Post as an attachment to a message in the “Data Report” in the Research Projects Forum on NYU Classes This data report is an opportunity for you to organize your thoughts and communicate to me about the data for your research project. You will receive a maximum of 3 points towards your Project Grade based on your Data Report. To receive the maximum points for the data report you need to turn it in on time (by 11:00pm on the date listed above) and address all the requirements listed below. The points will not depend the content of what you provide in this report, it will depend only on whether you have attempted to provide the information listed. Must of the information listed below must be included in your final paper. Your grade for the final paper will depend on what information you provided about the data you use in your research project, how you present that information and the clarity and the accuracy of that information.

The requirements of this data report are listed below. If there is a requirement you are not ready to meet at this time, you will not lose points if you make a statement saying you are not ready and you give a brief explanation of what you are doing to ensure that you will be able to meet that requirement in the final paper. If there is a requirement that you do not think applies to your research project, you will not lose points if you include a sentence saying it does not apply.

This report must be a combination of sentences and tables. You may list required information in tables and in printouts from STATA. However, preceding each table or printout you must include sentences that describe and/or summarize the information you are providing in the table or printout. Note, you will lose points in the final paper if you present information in STATA printouts. For the final paper you must put your data description, test results and estimation results in tables. (Exceptions will be allowed if before you turn in the final paper you discuss why the printout is preferable.)

Requirements for your data report. a. The names of the members of your group. b. A description of the variables you expect to use in your theoretical model. This description must be stated in terms of the economic or general concept you are studying. You will lose points in your final paper if you describe your variables based on name of data series and not based on concepts. For example, you will lose points in the final paper if you describe a variable in your economic model as GDP instead of describing it as the nation's economic output or income. c. Identify which variable is your dependent variable and which variables are your independent variables. Identify which of the independent variables are your variables of interest and which are control variables. d. If you are ready, write the economic (theoretical) model. e. Describe the data you will use for each variable listed in the theoretical model. Include the details listed below. For example, if you include the variable economic growth in your theoretical model you might measure this variable using data for the growth of Real GDP for the year 2012. In this report you would need to describe your data by saying it is as the annual average growth of GDP in 2012, measured in constant 2005 U.S. dollars for each of the 70 countries in your sample. If your data are the growth rates of Nominal or Current GDP, you would describe it the average annual growth of GDP in 2012, measured in current US dollars for each of the 70 countries in your sample.
The following are a list of requirements for your description. (1) A general description of the observational unit, the time period for each data series and the number of observations. For example, you might say that you are collecting data for at least 70 countries for 2006. Alternatively, you might say you are looking at data for 100 corporations in the S&P 500 for 2007. (2) List what units the data are measured in by the source of the data (i.e. dollars, local currency, percentage points). (3) For data measured in dollars or any other monetary unit, state if they are nominal (current) or real units (include the base year). (4) If your data are for an index or a ranking you most give some details about the scale of the index (1 to 5 or base year equals 100) and on how the index is formed and provide an indication of how the scale should be interpreted. For example of you use the Ease of Doing Business Index published in the World Bank WDI you need to explain at least that the "Ease of doing business ranks economies from 1 to 189, with first place being the best. A high ranking (a low numerical rank) means that the regulatory environment is conducive to business operation. The index averages the country's percentile rankings on 10 topics covered in the World Bank's Doing Business. The ranking on each topic is the simple average of the percentile rankings on its component indicators." (source http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.BUS.EASE.XQ). It is recommended that you provide sufficient information to show that you understand how and what the data measures. In the case, of the Ease of Doing Business, it is expected that you word go beyond the World Banks summary on the data page and go to http://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology to learn more about the index and report it in your paper. (5) Describe any plans you have for transforming the data, for example using ln(data) or % of GDP. Include in your description why the transformed data fits the model better than the original form of the data. (6) Describe the frequency of the original data (monthly, quarterly, annual) and what is the frequency of data you actually used (monthly, quarterly, annual, 5 year average, percent change) (7) Provide details of what the data measure. For example if the data are for the variable inflation, you must specify whether it is the % change or the difference in the natural log of CPI, PPI, or GDP deflator. If it is for FDI is it the country’s net inward stock of FDI or net inflow of FDI. (Not every group will be able to do this for every series, but you should make a reasonable effort to do this for this report and you must be able to do it in the final paper). To provide this information you may need to read the notes about this data that are published by the data sources. (8) List the source of the data. You must give as much detail on this as possible – enough that someone could replicate your data. It is ok if you are not ready to do this for this report but it is a requirement for the final paper. (9) If your model includes dummy variables, clearly state for conditions the variable takes the value one and for what conditions the variable takes the value 0. (10) If you are far enough along collecting and arranging your data, a table (printout) of the summary statistics of the variables. The table should include the mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values and the number of observations. For any data you collect in one form but plan to transform for your estimation, included the summary statistics for both versions of the data. For instance, if you are collecting CPI and plan to use difference in the log of the CPI as the variable inflation include summary statistics for the CPI data series and the difference in the log of CPI data series. (11) If you are far enough along collecting and arranging your data, include a correlation matrix of the variables in the form you plan to use them.

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[ 1 ]. Observational unit is who or what's data are report, i.e. country, firm, household, province, city, person.