--%>
Assignment Help - homework help

What is Imperfect data

Imperfect data: Most studies start with imperfect data. Few datasets involve the entire population of interest.

Typically, the data has been gathered by others for specific purposes, and as such may have built in biases or representational problems. As a consumer of analytical research, you should be looking for whether the authors properly describe the source of their data and any connected limitations imposed by that source. Surveys of populations will frequently report their confidence intervals. At either the national level or at the economy wide or sectoral level of analysis, data often has relatively small confidence intervals across space and over time.

As the data is subdivided to represent subsets of the source population (e.g., the Labour Force Survey unemployment rate in manufacturing in Saskatchewan vs. the unemployment rate for Canada as a whole), the confidence intervals will widen significantly. The level of confidence may widen to the point where differences of ± 10% to 20% may not be statistically significant. Authors should carefully consider the provenance and reliability of their data.

A second problem is that quite often authors report that they have “cleaned” a dataset – e.g., dropped outliers in panel data or lopped off tips or tails of longitudinal data. Any time you hear this, your antennae should go up. Cleaning data should be done very carefully and any changes in data should be fully discussed and analyzed, rather than simply accepted.

   Related Questions in Microeconomics

  • Q : Equal Income in Lorenz Curve When all

    When all households have equal incomes, in that case the Lorenz curve would be: (w) zero. (x) a 45 degree line. (y) 1. (z) rectangularly hyperbolic. Hey friends please give your opinion for the problem of E

    		•
  • Q : Income Distribution and Satisfaction

    Some researchers have determined that citizens of some prosperous countries [for example, Japan] explain themselves as “happy” far less frequently, onto average, than citizens of a few poorer nations [for example, Indonesia]. Nevertheless, almost all studi

    		•
  • Q : Problem on Vertical Integration Can

    Can someone please help me in finding out the accurate answer from the following question. When an aluminum producer as well mined bauxite ore (employed in aluminum production) and manufactured beer cans, it will be: (i) The diagonal partnership. (ii) Vertically integ

    		•
  • Q : Relevant demand of Kinked Demand by

    In this demonstrated figure kinked demand curve model, when a firm at point a raises or lowers its price and the rest of the firms in the industry do similar thing, in that case the relevant demand curve for the firm is: (w) demand curve D0

    		•
  • Q : Ceteris Paribus assumption The ceteris

    The ceteris paribus (all as well constant) assumption is most obviously implicit in the statement of a tailor who states that, “We will vend more suits in the month of May of 2008: (i) Than we sold in the month of May 2003. (ii) Than we sold in

    		•
  • Q : Complication in accusation of predatory

    An accusation of predatory pricing is complicated to prove within a court of law since: (w) firms generally have too much power. (x) consumers and juries like the low prices and are less likely to fine a firm for lowering price. (y) predatory behavior

    		•
  • Q : Engage market power in price

    If this is possible, firms along with market power engage in price discrimination to: (i) defy civil rights legislation. (ii) help consumers. (iii) help the community. (iv) increase their profits. (v) reduce production costs.

  • Q : Increasing cost industries when

    When resource supply curves facing an industry are positively sloped, in that case the exit of firms which have incurred losses will result in: (w) higher prices and lower output for the industry, although lower average production costs for the surviv

    		•
  • Q : Explain about most price elasticity

    Which of the given recommend that supply is most price elastic: (1) a pay hike from $400 to $800 monthly raises military enlistees from 12,000 to 28,000 monthly. (2) A 20% increase in goat milk production follows a 40% increase in the price of cow mil

    		•
  • Q : Problem on Competition and Social

    Can someone please help me in finding out the accurate answer from the following question. The purely competitive organization in the output market which hires from a purely competitive labor market will utilize labor at the point where VMP = W since the firm: (i) Fun

    		•