This is meant to help you think through what you will actually do with your data – so it serves both as a checklist to ensure you are using several methods (but no need to use all) from L1022 and as a planning tool so you can plan what you are actually going to do with your data, i.e. manage your work.
Delete the examples I have given – NB: these are just examples, they do not indicate that you must use these methods for your project, or just these methods either.
Name: Yuan WANG
Project title: Unemployment rate of labour force in the US
Methods on L1022 Method You will use in project Reason: what do think this method will allow you to test: write this down in English and in “stats”. what do you expect to find?
Summarising your data Summary statistics (e.g. mean, median, proportions, variance, z-scores, confidence intervals of mean etc) for the whole sample and perhaps for important sub-samples),
Do not calculate all of these! Think carefully which ones will be useful Mean, variance and Z-score To see if the variables are just increasing as time goes on and to see if the variables lie in a unusual high or low level in a particular period.
Graphs: trends over time, bar charts etc (also for whole sample and for key groups) Line Charts To show the trends of all the variables and to seek the relation between variables and unemployment rate.
Testing hypotheses Differences in means or proportions between sub-groups Testing if unemployment rate is determined by other variables (e.g. GDP) I will group states into high GDP level and low GDP level and test if the unemployment rate in the two groups of states are the same.
e.g. H0: UR(low GDP)=UR(high GDP)
Differences in variances between