Research Paper Help- Analyzing a Data Set Using Multiple Regression Analysis
We utilize multiple regression to complete the project, a topic that is introduced in the course later in the semester. See the following links for a brief introduction to the project, and simple and multiple regression analysis.
For the final project, you should work alone. The purpose of the project is for you to gain experience in applying the methods taught in the class to a real data set of interest to you.
Objectives
At the end of this project, you will be able to:
define a research question and define appropriate variables to measure on a topic that you care about
decide on an experimental design
gather and analyze original data (rather than data prepared for you) on an issue of interest to you
prepare an appropriate report
provide constructive, thoughtful feedback to peers on their projects
Project Format
This project relies on multiple regression analysis to analyze a dataset that is of interest to you. The final report for the project should be a 5-10 page single-spaced paper that describes the questions of interest, how you used your data set to analyze these questions with details on the steps you used in your analysis, your findings of your question of interest and the limitations of your study. Specifically, your report should contain the following:
Introduction. The introduction succinctly states the problem you are interested in, briefly describes your data and the method of analysis and summarizes your main conclusions. A summary of what you set out to learn, and what you ended up finding. It should summarize the entire report.
Data Description. This section provides the details of the data sources, any transformations you have done to the data (for example, changing the units of some variables), gives a table of summary statistics (means and standard deviations) of the variables, and provides scatterplots and/or other relevant plots of the data. If there are outliers other than those arising from corrected typographical or computer errors, this is the place to point them out.
Regression Analysis. Describe how you used multiple regression to analyze the data set. Specifically, you should discuss how you carried out the steps in analysis discussed in class, i.e., exploration of data to find an initial reasonable model, checking the model and changes to the model based on your checking of the model.
Empirical Results. This section provides the main empirical results in the paper. Conventionally, regression results are presented in tabular form, with footnotes clearly explaining the entries. The initial table of results should present the main results; sensitivity analysis using alternative specifications can be presented in additional columns in that table or in subsequent tables. For organizational purposes and clarity, you may choose to have some tables at the end of the paper, with appropriate references in the body of the paper as needed. The text should provide a careful discussion of the results, including assessments both of statistical significance and of economic significance, that is, the magnitude of the estimated relations in a real-world sense.
Summary and Discussion. This section summarizes your main empirical findings and discusses their implications for the original question of interest. Describe any limitations of your study and how they might be overcome in future research and provide brief conclusions about the results of your study.
