An Examination of the Lithuanian Labour Market
2017-2018
Coursework for Introduction to Econometrics
Instructions to Students
- You are to write:
- a proper, professional REPORT in a Word document. Marks will be awarded for presentation as well as content.
- in a separate text file, you are to save your do-file(s) that you used to (a) generate the data used in your analysis, and that you used to (b) analyse the data. The do file(s) should also show how you created any figures that are used in the REPORT.
- You are to upload through Moodle:
- a Microsoft WORD file that contains your REPORT no later than 5 p.m. Friday 4thMAY, 2018. Do not submit a PDF file, submit only a Word document.
- for the same deadline, the do file you used should be uploaded
- for the same deadline, log file you generated from the do file should be uploaded
- Do not copy and paste diagrams from publications. Generate all figures in Stata and copy into your report. Remember to save the coding you used to generate the report as a do file. No analysis or graphs should be done in Excel.
- Check your spelling before submission using the spellchecker in Microsoft Word. This is meant to be a professional report you are writing.Write in paragraphs.
- The REPORT should be referenced at the end using the Harvard Referencing style.
The REPORT will have as its title:
“An Examination of the Lithuanian Labour Market during the first quarter of 2001”
You will use the data set supplied in Excel format that can be found on the Moodle site. No other data is to be used apart from this data set. This is an authentic household labour force survey data set purchased by for research purposes.
An Examination of the Lithuanian Labour Market
All work at analysing the data will be conducted in the econometric package Stata, version 15.1, available in all computer suites, the Library, and the Learning Resource Centre.
To analyse the data set you will need to use the questionnaire which accompanies the data set and can, again, be found on the Moodle site.
You will aim, as a minimum, to answer four main questions. Using a Mincer wage equation:
- What are the returns to education working in the Lithuanian labour market in 2004? Are there differences due to gender, or ethnicity? Explain and discuss.
- Is there any evidence of wage discrimination within the labour market of Lithuania in 2004 based on age, gender, and ethnicity?
- Examine and discuss the differences between tenure and work experience in helping to determine the wage in the labour market.
- Examine and discuss the differences between working part-time and full-time in the labour market. This examination could look at the differences in wage between the groups; differences due to gender, ethnicity, or location, to name a few.
An Examination of the Lithuanian Labour Market
Many other questions can be addressed which could add content to the report especially when writing the general introduction to the labour market in Lithuania. Students should read the questionnaire for inspiration but as a minimum, the above three questions should be addressed in detail.
Advice to Students
- Be sure to use Equation Editor for writing out the functional form and specification of your estimating equations. The preceding is not optional. You must use Equation Editor.
- Whether you use standard errors, t values, or p values be clear to state what you have used but use one of the preceding.
- Report and explain the F statistic in any estimating equation.
- Explicitly comment in the report whether heteroscedasticity is an issue at any time and if so what you did about it. Report your tests for heteroscedasticity and make sure that these tests can be seen in the do file.
- Explicitly comment in the report whether multicollinearity was an issue at any time and if so what you did about it. Report your tests for heteroscedasticity and make sure that these tests can be seen in the do file.
- You should test to see whether the data you use in any estimating equation is actually normally distributed or not. Make sure you report the test and that the code can be seen in the do file.
- Make sure to comment on the goodness of fit of your estimating equations.
- Be clear in your report what hypothesis is being tested and whether you are using a one-tailed or two-tailed test for your hypothesis testing.
- Conduct tests of misspecification on any estimating equations. Make sure you report the test and that the code can be seen in the do file.
- Always interpret your estimated equations.
- Draw conclusions from your interpretations at the appropriate point in your report.
- Make recommendations at the appropriate point in your report.
- Always label your graphs, figures and diagrams. Insert tables of figures, equations, and tables at the start after your table of contents.
- The report should be a maximum of 2,000 words long excluding references and appendices. Near the start of your report there must be a table of contents. To generate a Table of Contents in Word use the Table of Contents feature:
If you have never used this before then go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErIY5hrFMzc
Students who do not have a Table of Contents will have marks deducted.
Additional advice will be given in the seminar classes which you need to attend.
Marking Criteria
Research (uncovering of information) 5 Marks
Systematic identification and use of a range of academic textbooks, many of which will be econometric textbooks, although not exclusively. Marks are awarded for the range of econometric and academic textbooks utilized and suitably referenced. Additional marks will be awarded to students who quote and utilize from econometric journals, although it is expected that at this study level this may be the exception rather than the rule.No marks are awarded for information gleaned from the Internet. Use of EconLit is encouraged and the only online information that will be allowed in this coursework has to be found through EconLit. If you reference an article, it should be a book available from the University library or available through EconLit.
Analysis 30 Marks
Analysis here refers to the examination, interpretation, and discussion of the results of your empirical econometric investigation as it relates to the assessment brief, where sources of material are both of a theoretical and empirical nature.
By results is meant not just regression results but tables of frequencies, and graphs produced using the data supplied for the coursework.
Subject Knowledge 30 Marks
Understanding and application of subject knowledge and underlying principles. Note that a student may state relevant knowledge in answering the coursework question, but may not apply such knowledge sufficiently in the analysis: having knowledge does not guarantee analysis. In addition, the application of subject knowledge will require technical competency which is explained below.
Technical Competency 15 Marks
This criteria is defined as the demonstration of the skills to enable the evaluation and execution of ideas appropriate to the assessment; E.g. well-thought out specifications are required for this econometric exercise; appropriate mathematical equations; appropriate theoretical diagrams which help answer the coursework question; logical analysis and discussion using appropriate theoretical concepts for discursive or quantitative style assessments; use of mathematical techniques where appropriate in more quantitative assessments. All tables, and diagrams, must be constructed by yourself and not copied and pasted.
Under this criteria, the Stata do file and Stata log file submitted will also be evaluated. The do file must contain a “date stamp” in its list of commands.
The preceding is not an exhaustive list.
Communication and Presentation 20 Marks
Clarity of purpose in the exposition of the assessment; skills in the selected mode of media in which the assessment is conducted (e.g. Equation Editor and drawing facility in Word both professionally utilized); awareness and adoption of appropriate conventions (e.g. use of Harvard referencing; punctuation, grammar, and English prose that reads well); awareness of the nature of the audience (is the assessment for the lecturer; a ‘public’ report; an academic audience); work approaching expected employer standards or publication standards in academic journals.
Under no circumstances should any figure be copied and pasted into the final coursework document that has not been created in the econometric package Stata. This includes tables of results generated within Stata. Appropriate do files should be used for producing results in a Word document. Marks will be deducted if this is not adhered to
