Health Economics

Semester 2, 2019
Individual Assignment
Due 8th Oct (Tues)

Please type your assignment and turn in the hardcopy of your assignment in class.
Please also submit the softcopy to YSCEC, under “Indiv Assignment”. We will grade
your hardcopy. In completing this assignment, you may discuss with your friends but
you have to submit your own work.

1. (1 point) Spend 10 minutes on the World Health Organization Website. List 10

types of global health topics of your interest the WHO are concerned with.

2. (3 points) Nearly every daily newspaper has health reports, and there is a multitude
of health-related web sites. Among the 10 types of health topics mentioned above,
pick one topic, and do a little research on the web. Find ONE article (websites, blog
or newspaper) of your interest with a HTTP link. Put summary of the article in your
own words. Your summary should not exceed more than two paragraphs. The
purpose of this exercise is to get each of you to engage with a current health policy
issue through online health economics resources. Feel free to share this article on
YSCEC, under “Papers and other resources”

Now, download the survey data. You may use Excel or any other statistical software of
your choice (e.g. Stata, Matlab, eViews, SAS, R, etc) 1 to complete this assignment.
The Excel file contains the survey information that we conducted in class. For the
description of variables, please refer to the survey questionnaire that is separately
attached.

3. (6 points) Using Semester 2, 2019 data only, calculate average sleep hours (‘sleep’)
for males and females. Also, calculate the standard deviation and the standard error
of sleep hours by gender (so total 6 numbers).
(1) average sleep hours (male)
(2) average sleep hours (female)
(3) standard deviation of sleep hours (using stdev.s if using EXCEL) (male)
(4) standard deviation of sleep hours (using stdev.s if using EXCEL) (female)
(5) standard error of sleep hours (male)
(6) standard error of sleep hours (female)

4. (4 points) Using Semester 2, 2019 data only

(1) What is the average difference by gender?
(2) Is the difference in sleep hours statistically significant at the 5% of the
significant level?
(3) Show your reasoning.

1 Online resources to help you learn and use Stata: http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/

5. (4 points) Using Semester 2, 2019 data only, run a linear regression 2 where your
dependent variable is ‘sleep’ and your only independent variable is a binary
indicator of female.
(1) Post screenshot of your output (that shows the coefficient estimate and standard
error of the variable female, among others).
(2) What is your coefficient of estimate on female?
(3) Show that the coefficient equals the average difference by gender that you
obtained in Question 4.

6. (5 points) Using all years of data, run a linear regression where your dependent
variable is ‘physical health’ and your three independent variables are ‘exercise’, a
binary indicator of female (‘female’), and average sleeping hours (‘sleep’).
(1) Interpret each coefficient.
(2) Discuss potential bias of the coefficient estimate on ‘sleep’.

7. (7 points) Explore your data Prepare two tables or graphs to show interesting
descriptive findings using the survey data. For instance, you can draw a histogram
of self-reported physical health by gender or you can look at relation between
mental health and sociability. Use your imagination to explore these variables
provided in the data set. Discuss your findings in detail, and if you run a regression,
explain potential biases in your estimates. Describe what sample restrictions you
made, etc.

2
If you use Excel, you may have to install Analysis Toolpack (http://www.wikihow.com/Run-
Regression-Analysis-in-Microsoft-Excel).