EC2017 Individual Report

How to submit? Upload your work via submission point on Moodle.

What to submit? Submit ONLY 1 MS Word file with your answers. Do not forget to copy all
your commands from your do-file at the end of your work. Your results should be
replicable using those commands.

Word limit? Recommended word limit is 1,500 words. 10% below or above this word limit
is allowed. Figure/table captions, Stata commands, text in tables, footnotes, and
regression specifications do not count towards the word limit.

Data: You are asked to work with European Social Survey (ESS) data, a cross–national
survey that has been conducted across Europe since 2001. In this assessment, we will use
the final round only (data published in 2023). The description of all variables and data
collection processes is available together with this assessment setup on Moodle.

In this task, you are asked to proceed with regression analysis, and write a report. Read
the questions carefully, full marks can be achieved only if you answer the questions fully.

Use all the countries in the dataset.

Question 1) You are interested in learning about the likelihood of voting in an election.
(Hint: define a person as having voted (=1) if they have voted in the previous election and 0
if the person has not voted in the previous election).

a) You are interested in whether there are gender differences in voting behaviour. You
estimate a regression model with being a woman as the single explanatory variable.
Clearly write down the regression model. Then estimate it and interpret the
estimated coefficients. Can you see any gender differences in voting behaviour?

b) Your friend argues that when having a paid job in the last 7 days is excluded from the
estimated model in part 1.a, the coefficient on being a woman will be biased. Explain
to your friend the conditions under which excluding the variable of having a paid job
in the last 7 days makes the coefficient on gender to be biased. Intuitively discuss the
direction of bias.

c) Then use the formula for omitted variable bias to calculate the size of bias. Confirm
your answer by comparing the coefficient on gender from estimating the model in
part 1.a with the new model. (Hint: you might need to restrict your sample to those
observations without missing values to be able to obtain the correct size of bias).

d) You now want to test whether the impact of having a paid job on voting behaviour
depends on the individual’s age. Write down a model which allows you to directly
test that hypothesis. Describe step-by-step how you build your null and alternative
 hypotheses, how you select the test, how you calculate the test statistic, and how
you make your decision over the rejection/not rejection of your null hypothesis and
conclude. (You can exclude gender from the explanatory variables).

e) Then proceed and estimate the model in part 1.d. Are there any age differences in
the impact of having a paid job on voting behaviour? Comment on your findings and
carefully interpret all the estimated coefficients in that model.

f) Continue to use the regression model in part 1.a. You think that education is an
important predictor of voting behaviour. You want to add years of education as an
explanatory variable to this model, but your friend argues that the impact of
education on voting behaviour is concave. Write down a model which allows you to
test this hypothesis.

g) Estimate the model in part 1.f and carefully interpret the relationship between years
of education and voting behaviour.

Question 2) You are interested in investigating whether the impact of the determinants of
trust in the police in Scandinavian countries is different compared to the impact of the
determinants of trust in the police in other countries. (Hint 1: Scandinavian countries
include Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Hint 2: You need to write down a
single regression model to discuss this question).

a) Write down a regression model which allows you to test this. Define your dependent
and independent variables and justify your choice. Describe whether you expect
positive/negative estimated coefficients for each independent variable.
b) Using the variables you selected, estimate your regression model. Export the results
into a table and carefully comment on your findings.
c) Write a short report summarizing your overall findings (suggestion: 200 words).

Question 3) At the end of your work, include a copy of your do-file containing all your
commands. Ensure that your do-file has comments explaining the purpose of each line, to
clarify what each command is doing.
Marking Criteria
Assessment Fail (0 – 39) Pass (40 – 49) Satisfactory Good (60 – 69) Excellent (70 –
criteria (50 – 59) 100)
Knowledge and Limited, Evidence of There is Clear evidence Strong and firm
understanding confused and some but rather evidence of of learning and understanding of
of theory and not accurate basic learning even engagement the required
techniques understanding understanding if not always with the subject statistical
of theory and and ability of as accurate matter taught methodologies;
statistical application of and detailed as during the clear evidence
techniques the required by the term. Shows a of an ability to
learned in the methodologies investigation firm apply them in
module; no learned understanding context
clear ability of throughout the and ability of
applying such term application
techniques
Analysis and Discussion is There is a Good Good Excellent
evaluation of mainly tendency for interpretation analytical skills analytical skills
evidence from descriptive; no descriptive of the and, overall, with clear
data and evidence of rather than investigation shows a evidence of an
statistical deep analytical results with ‘control’ of the ability to
investigation understanding; interpretation of some ability of subject matter critically
no ability to the outcome of analysing the and a clear evaluate the
properly the statistical evidence even ability to findings
analyse investigation if this is not interpret and, at emerging from
evidence always as least partly, the investigation
informative critically
and accurate evaluate the
as it should be evidence
Quality of Poor writing Broadly a Generally, a Overall, a well Very well
report: writing style and positive report well written written report written report
style, quality of difficult to even if the report but with without with a nice
graphs and understand; writing style some spelling attempt to create
tables; no poorly should inaccuracies in mistakes and a narrative of
spelling presented improve; some citation and good the evidence
mistakes; graphs, tables spelling referencing. referencing from the
accurate and statistics; mistakes; not No attempt to citations. There investigation.
citation and mainly always accurate create a is an attempt to Good overall
referencing inaccurate referencing and narrative of create a referencing and
citation and citation the evidence narrative that, no spelling
referencing however, is not mistakes
always
successful