political
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AGGREGATEDATAPOLS365Sept.20181.docxPOLITICAL DATA ANALYSIS
POLS 365
AGGREGATE DATA
NAME:
1. Select ONE country in each of the following regions, in addition to the United States.
1. United States
2. Western Europe_____________________________________________________________________________________
3. Eastern Europe (former communist, not former Soviet Union) _______________________________________________
4. South America______________________________________________________________________________________
5. Central America _____________________________________________________________________________________
6. Pacific Islands (Oceania)_______________________________________________________________________________
7. Asia_______________________________________________________________________________________________
8. Eurasia (former Soviet Union) _________________________________________________________________________
9. Africa (not Middle East)______________________________________________________________________________
10. Middle East _______________________________________________________________________________________
2. Fill out TABLE 1 AND TABLE 2 with the data obtained from different websites included in the list provided by Prof. Azpuru. If you don’t find a particular indicator for one country put n/a (not available). Try to understand what is the meaning of the indexes, how they are constructed, what they are supposed to represent and what concepts are behind those measurements.
3. Complete the following columns in Table 3: Concept, Range. We will do the descriptive and the relationship questions together.
4. In the last page (Comments), follow the instructions and complete it.
5. Please work neatly. Use small numbers and words. I will deduct points for a messy assignment.
Information for Exercise on Aggregate Data
IMPORTANT POINTS (will be included in next exam):
· Data (indicators) mean something: there is a concept behind each one of the indicators used in the exercise.
· The indicator is the operational definition of a concept.
· It is important to look at the range of the indicator: what do the numbers mean, which result is good: high or low? The range varies from indicator to indicator.
· Think of questions (descriptive and relationship questions) that you can develop using each of these indicators.
· The indicator should not be confused with the “rank”. A rank is the position a country occupies in the list, but it is not the score.
· Think of hypotheses that you can formulate based on these indicators. Remember that hypotheses are tentative answers to your research question.
· Not for exam: It is important to look at the methodology used by the organization that compiles the indicator.
TABLE 1. INDEXES AND MEASURES FOR COMPARISONS BETWEEN COUNTRIES (use the most recent year available for each indicator)
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INDICATOR/COUNTRY |
Freedom House Score |
Corruption Perception Index |
Human Development Index |
Fragile States Index |
KOF Globalization Index |
Index of Economic Freedom |
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TABLE 2. OTHER INDICATORS WORLD BANK (WB)
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INDICATOR/COUNTRY |
GDP per capita (WB, Economy and Growth) |
Proportion of seats held by women in national assemblies (WB, Social Development) |
% of urban population (WB, Urban Development) |
Gini Index of Inequality (WB , Poverty or UNDP) |
Individuals using the Internet (%) (WB, Infrastructure) |
Homicide rates x 100,000 inhabitants (WB)
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1. United States
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TABLE 3. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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Indicator (operational definition) |
Concept |
Range |
Descriptive question |
Relationship question |
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Freedom House Score
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Democracy |
0-100 |
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Transparency International Index (CPI)
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Transparency of public officials |
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Human Development Index (HDI)
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Quality of life |
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Fragile States Index
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Fragility of states |
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KOF Globalization Index
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Level of globalization |
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Index of Economic Freedom
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Free-market economy |
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GDP per capita
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Wealth |
------- |
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Women’s seats in parliament
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Women’s political participation |
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Gini Index
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Income inequality |
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Homicide rates x 100,000 inhabitants
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Violence |
-------- |
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COMMENTS (write clearly).
TABLE 1: Suppose that the first column (democracy) is your dependent variable. Do you see any patterns with regards to the other columns in this table? Is there a visual ‘correlation’ with another index? Make sure you interpret the direction of the index correctly.
For example: Countries that ………… are more/less likely to be democracies
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TABLE 2. Indicate three things that you find interesting after completing this table.
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