Only two part of economic question
Saint Mary’s University
Sobey School of Business
Economics Department
ECON 3341
Summer 2017
Instructor: Dmitry Lysenko
Assignment on Data Analysis
The assignment is due to the beginning of the lecture, June 15th. Students must submit
hard copies of the assignment.
Total: 60 points
Part 1
This part of the assignment deals with the demand for university education in Nova Scotia.
First, read the following documents:
"Is Demand for University Education Shrinking Among Maritimers?" available at
http://www.mphec.ca/resources/TrendsV92012E.pdf;
“University Participation - Tables: Measures of Student Progress and Outcomes February 2012”
available at http://www.mphec.ca/resources/Participation_Tables_Feb2012_En.pdf.
Then, do the following:
1) (5 points) Define the following concepts explained in the documents:
-Home province participation;
-Overall participation;
-Maritime Participation (this concept refers to maritime participation of a province as defined in
the “University Participation - Tables: Measures of Student Progress and Outcomes February
2012” document).
Note: remember that you must reference the definitions either by direct quotation or paraphrase
(expressing the idea in your own words), which must be acknowledged using correct citation.
2) (40 points) Using a) the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission (MPHEC)
dataset “Enrolment aggregated by province of study, institution, registration status, program
type, credential type, level of study, CIP group and province of residence” available through
Open Data at the MPHEC website and b) Statistics Canada data on population available in the
CANSIM database, table 051-0001 accessible at
http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a01?lang=eng, do the following:
a) (10 points) create the chart: Full-Time Home Province Participation, Nova Scotia, 2005/06 -
2015/16;
b) (10 points) create the chart: Full-Time Overall Participation, Nova Scotia, 2005/06 - 2015/16;
c) (10 points) create the chart: Full-Time Maritime Participation, Nova Scotia, 2005/06 -
2015/16.
d) (10 points) Using your knowledge of the determinants of individuals’ human capital
investments, discuss the factors that might explain the trend(s) observed in the charts (you may
choose one of the charts to discuss or discuss all of them). Maximum 300 words.
Note: for each chart, you should create a chart title, axis titles, and a legend.
Part 2
Go to the Statistics Canada webpage "Complete list of Pan-Canadian Education Indicators
Program tables" (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-582-x/2016001/tbl-eng.htm ).
3) (5 points) Using the data from Section E.3, create a chart "Average earnings, by age group and
level of education, Canada, [indicate a year]". Creating the chart use:
-three education levels: a) high school diploma or equivalent; b) university certificate or diploma
below bachelor level c) university certificate, diploma or degree at bachelor level or above;
- age categories from 20-24 to 55-59.
Note: you should create a chart title, axis titles, and a legend.
4) (10 points) Using your knowledge of the human capital theory, discuss the factors that might
explain earnings differences across age groups and across education levels. Maximum 300
words.