ECON 1541 Applied Techniques for Economists, 2023.

Assignment 2: Statistical Analysis Project –Instructions for November

2023 Submissions.

1. Assignment Description
The assignment weights 50% of the total mark for this module and it is an individual piece of work.
The aims of this assignment are to develop practical skills in presentation of economic data, conducting
statistical analysis, developing evidence-based recommendations and implications for further research.
Students will also improve the report writing skills.
Students are provided with data on the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) for the period 2000-2020 and the
poverty rate for the period 1990-2019 collected by the World Bank (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator)
to answer the following question:
Does the poverty rate affect the distribution of TB?
The data files are available on BB:
- Incidence of tuberculosis (per 100,000 people): API_SH.TBS.INCD_DS2_en_excel_v2_3737287.xls
- Poverty headcount ratio at $3.20 a day (2011 PPP) (% of population):
API_SI.POV.LMIC_DS2_en_excel_v2_3754837.xls
Each student will have to use data for specific years (different years for each student) to answer the above
question. The results will be year/student specific. The Annex lists two consecutive years for each
student. The first (most recent) year to be used to identify data on the Incidence of tuberculosis variable.
The second year - for the data on Poverty. For example, 2021/2020 means that the TB data should be for
year 2021 and the data on Poverty should come for 2020.

2. Requirements and Deadline

You have to produce and submit via Turnitin on Blackboard two documents by 12noon November 1st,
2023 and to your own professors folder for evaluation.

1) An Excel worksheet (20 marks out of 100) that contains the data you have analysed and each
analytical output you have produced and presented in your report (submit via a link on the
Blackboard).
2) A report (80 marks out of 100) as discussed below (submit via a link on the Blackboard)

1000 – 1200 words (not including the title page, table of contents, table of figures, tables, figures,
reference, appendix); be in size 11 Arial font, with 1.5 line spacing; students are expected to use several
graphs and tables.

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Your report should be in MS Word format. You do not need to submit a hard copy, just an electronic
copy via the Turnitin link as specified above. Your work should be returned within 20 working days.
Detailed feedback will be available and can be discussed with the lecturer.
Note that the normal requirements for academic quality will be applied in accordance with the university
policies. More details in terms of referencing, plagiarism, late submission can be found in the module
handbook.
Late submissions will result in the loss of 10 marks per day of delay if no deferral is granted prior the
original deadline. Reporting on a wrong data set will be penalized by 20 marks.

3. Guide for the structure and format of report

The report should present the results of your analysis and contain the following sections:
• (5 marks) Introduction: state the research question, why it is important, what data you are using to
answer the question.
• (10 marks) Background and hypothesis: Review at least one article published in an academic journal
that studies the same or similar question. What are the key findings and recommendations. Based on the
reviewed paper state the null and an alternative hypothesis which you will test with the data.
• Statistical Analyses:
o (5 marks) Describe your data source: Describe the source of data, year(s) of analysis, variables
you will use for the analysis, their meaning, units of measurement of each variable and the units of
observation. For more information visit the web site where the data was obtained (e.g.
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator) and check meta data for each variable.
o (10 marks) Data management: provide a clear description of each step in constructing the data set
for your analysis, assessing data quality and cleaning procedure. What is the original number of
observations and how many observations you will use for the analysis. Why? The suggestions for
the data cleaning include but are not limited to the following: do you have missing values or
duplicates? Do all the data points represent the same units of observation (what does it mean for
your analysis, e.g. do all the observations represent countries)? Are there any typos or other errors?
Are there any outliers? If yes, for which variable, how many and what are the examples? How
should the data be arranged for further analysis? Are you analysing data on a sample or on a
population?
o (15 marks) Descriptive analysis:
▪ Provide the key descriptive statistics for your data. It is a good practice to present the results in a
table with an explanation in the text of your report. Which of the statistics is affected by the
outliers and by how much? Use graphical representation of your data. Does the statistics differ
by the regions of the world? You can use pivot tables to demonstrate these differences.
▪ Construct two-variable descriptive analysis using the scatter plot and correlation. Does it
provide an evidence in support of your hypothesis? Is it affected by the outliers?
o (25 marks) Regression analysis and hypothesis testing: conduct the regression analysis of your
data and produce a table with results. Which is a dependent and which is an independent variable in
your analysis? How high is the explanatory power of your model? Describe the economic meaning
(interpretation) of the results. Discuss the results of hypotheses testing. Do you reject the null? At
what level of confidence? Is your result affected by the outliers?

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 o (5 marks) Conclusion: You should summarise what you have done, how you have done it and
what your results suggest. You should also suggest whether there any limitations with your data
and analysis and how you might improve your analysis. Can you suggest other variables or data
sources to test the same hypothesis? Are your results in line with the findings in the literature?
What would you recommend for policy makers and other stakeholders based on your results?
o (5 marks) Quality of writing: Be careful that any figures/tables you use are labelled and titled
appropriately and are correctly referred to in the text. The content should be clear, well organized,
with clear focuses, coherent presentation and logical progression.
For a nice additional guide on how to carry out an empirical project Chapter 19 of Wooldridge (2013)
(available on BB).

4. Assessment Criteria
The above marking distribution will be used for the assessment of your report. I will be looking for the
following things when awarding marks for this assignment:
 A well-presented report, which clearly highlights the main results.
 A clear structure, with an introduction and a conclusion that summarizes the main findings.
 The ability to use the statistical techniques we have studied in this course to present and analyse data
in a meaningful fashion.
 The ability to relate your statistical findings to some basic theory about the functioning of the
economy and economic events in order to make sense of the statistics.

The general mark scheme for undergraduate work is as follows:

Mark Range Criteria
90-100% Indicates that no fault can be found with the work other than very minor errors, for
example typographical, or perhaps failure to satisfy the most challenging and exacting
demands of the assessment.
80-89% Indicates a very high level of understanding evidenced by an ability to engage critically
and analytically with source material. Likely to exhibit independent lines of argument.
Only minor errors or omissions.
70-79% Judged to be very good, yet not outstanding. May contain minor errors or omissions. A
well-developed response showing clear knowledge and the ability to interpret and/or
apply that knowledge.
60-69% Indicates a sound understanding of basic points and principles but with some failure to
express or to apply them properly. Hence the answer is essentially correct, has some
errors or omissions, and is not seriously flawed.
50-59% Indicates a more limited understanding of basic points and principles, with significant
errors and omissions. These errors and omissions, however, do not cast doubt on the
basic level of understanding.
40-49% Indicates questionable understanding of basic points and principles yet sufficient to
show that learning outcomes have been achieved at a rudimentary level.
30-39% Indicates an answer that shows only weakly developed elements of understanding. The
learning outcomes have been insufficiently realized.
20-29% Very little knowledge has been demonstrated and the presentation shows little
coherence of material or argument.
0-19% Only isolated or no knowledge displayed.

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Annex. List of years for analysis by an individual student:

No. StudentI UMS_I First name Surname YEAR1 YEAR2

D D
1 2791063 41616 Aayush Adhikari 1999 2000
2 2791089 41166 Aminul Islam 2000 2001
3 2791108 41260 Amira Haque Nigar 2001 2002
4 2791133 41369 Anish Thapa 2002 2003
5 2791128 41373 Ashok Subedi 2003 2004
6 2791159 41170 Bibul Limbu 2004 2005
7 2791168 41298 Bishal Pandey 2005 2006
8 2791181 42185 Chandani Syngne Thakali 2006 2007
9 2791193 41384 Dipen Rana 2007 2008
10 2791207 42193 Fahad Ahmed 2008 2009
11 2791227 41390 Harshit Khati 2009 2010
12 2791223 41304 Hemanta Ghimire 2010 2011
13 2791251 41309 Jharna Kunwar Kshetri 2011 2012
14 2791302 41792 MD Ahbab Ul Ambia 2012 2013
15 2791325 42208 Minisha Ghale 2013 2014
16 2791362 41274 Mohammed Wahidur Rahman Oly 2014 2015
17 2791311 41252 MST Bushra Rahman Asha 2015 2016
18 2791439 41266 Proma Chowdhury 2016 2017
19 2790997 41578 Safal Shrestha 2017 2018
20 2791001 41268 Sandip Sarker 2018 2019
21 2791563 41212 Sanjaya Khadka 1999 2001
22 2791019 41347 Sapana Thapa 2000 2002
23 2790987 41585 Saphal Pokhrel 2001 2003
24 2791571 41599 Sovit Karki 2002 2004
25 2791527 41603 Sujay Basel 2003 2005
26 2791024 41605 Sumita Tamang 2004 2006
27 2791529 41607 Suraj Bhattarai 2005 2007

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28 2791533 41608 Susan Chaulagain 2006 2008
29 2791025 42066 Sushant Thapa 2007 2009
30 2791546 42061 Syed Abul Foyej 2008 2010
31 2791048 41201 Yearjina Akter 2009 2011
32 2791106 41716 Aakriti Maharjan 2010 2012
33 2791057 41214 Amrit Adhikari 2011 2013
34 2791101 42155 Amrita Lohar 2012 2014
35 2791058 41774 Anisha Acharya 2013 2015
36 2791165 41171 Bidhwomesh Oli 2014 2016
37 2791161 41381 Binod Lagun 2015 2017
38 2791209 41562 Fahima Tasnim Niha 2016 2018
39 2791208 41567 Fahmida Kader Fatema 2017 2019
40 2791233 41176 Harjas Singh 2018 2020
41 2791226 41281 Harmanpreet Kaur . 2000 2003
42 2791234 41234 Imran Ahmed 2001 2004
43 2791263 41784 Krita Bista 2002 2005
44 2791276 41452 Kuldeep Kaur . 2003 2006
45 2791317 41434 Manik Chapagain 2004 2007
46 2791394 41796 MD Ahnaf Shahriar 2005 2008
47 2791371 42157 Md Mustakim Awal Rafin 2006 2009
48 2791310 41265 Mohammed Shakil Aziz 2007 2010
49 2791326 41442 Mohit Gahatraj 2008 2011
50 2791406 41627 Nahida Akter 2009 2012
51 2791425 41278 Navtej Singh 2010 2013
52 2791027 42123 Samjhana Waiba 2011 2014
53 2791518 41193 Sandip Basnet 2012 2015
54 2791000 42119 Sandip Sherpali 2013 2016
55 2791536 42112 Sapana Dotel 2014 2017
56 2791521 42111 Sasmita Bhattarai 2015 2018
57 2791537 41588 Saugat Dahal 2016 2019
58 2791525 41351 Sudip Bhandari 2017 2020
59 2791576 41353 Sushmita Khadgi 1999 2002
60 2791036 41689 Torikul Islam 2002 2005
61 2791055 41284 Abdullah Bin Abbas 2005 2008

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62 2791094 41535 Abu Kaysar 2008 2011
63 2791104 41366 Alisa Magar 2011 2014
64 2791175 41374 Babin Thapa 2014 2017
65 2791228 41303 Heema Khatiwada 2017 2020
66 2791254 41307 Jasika . 1999 2003
67 2791270 41781 Kamal Khatri 2000 2004
68 2791283 41311 Karun Parajuli 2001 2005
69 2791281 41207 Kawalpreet Kaur . 2002 2006
70 2791277 42084 Kelsang Tenzin Lama 2003 2007
71 2791288 42085 Khaled Hossain Salman 2004 2008
72 2791264 41178 Krishna Raj Giri 2005 2009
73 2791321 41317 Madhav Dangi 2006 2010
74 2791395 41277 Md Iftekhar Ahmed Shihon 2007 2011
75 2791364 42142 Md Masud Parveg 2008 2012
76 2791357 42161 MD Seamuzzaman Nibir 2009 2013
77 2791359 41203 Muskan . 2010 2014
78 2791429 41527 Nishal Shrestha 2011 2015
79 2791450 41705 Prakriti Pariyar 2012 2016
80 2791437 41337 Pratik Chapagain 2013 2017
81 2791452 42226 Pratik Pokharel 2014 2018
82 2791441 42227 Priya Dahal 2015 2019
83 2791467 41338 Rabin Basnet 2016 2020
84 2791461 41708 Rajan Acharya 1999 2005
85 2791486 41453 Reena Rani . 2000 2006
86 2791487 41454 Rimpy Kaur . 2001 2007
87 2791506 41681 Roza Adnanbhai Vahora 2002 2008
88 2791515 42124 Sajana Bhandari 2003 2009
89 2791561 42121 Sandesh Khatri 2004 2010
90 2791570 42101 Sidharth Karki 2005 2011