--%>
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 : Holding less liquid assets in investment

    When households become more willing to hold less liquid assets, in that case the: (w) interest rate rises. (x) present value of future income falls. (y) interest rate falls. (z) stock market will crash. I need a go

    		•
  • Q : Minimum wage laws for unskilled and

    The capability of unskilled workers to compete against skilled workers for jobs tends to be decreased by: (1) progressive income taxes. (2) laws which impose excessive legal minimum wages. (3) speculation and arbitrage. (d) inflationary balance of trade deficits. (5)

    		•
  • Q : Examples of pure economic rent The

    The clearest illustrations of pure economic rent are payments: (1) for improvements which increase the productivity of resources. (2) to owners of unimproved land. (3) exceeding the productivity of a resource. (4) received by owners of homogeneous res

    		•
  • Q : Preferance of food after income rises

    Assume that, for you, lobster is an ordinary good and peanut butter is a poorer good. When your income increases, you will probably consume: (1) Greater of both goods. (2) Less of both goods. (3) Greater peanut butter and less lobster. (4) Greater lobster and less pea

    		•
  • Q : Equilibrium price in the short run The

    The equilibrium price for Christmas trees in the short run is: (w) P1. (x) P2. (y) P3. (z) P4.

    Q : Economic losses generate competitive

    Economic losses in an industry generate competitive pressures which cause: (1) industry output to fall. (2) market price to decrease. (3) each firm’s short-run output to increase. (4) rising costs for industry inputs. (5) firms to expand product

    		•
  • Q : Horizontal sum of the quantities in

    The short-run supply curve for a purely competitive industry is the horizontal total of the: (a) quantities demanded by consumers at each price. (b) prices charged by individual firms for each quantity supplied. (c) quantities supplied by established

    		•
  • Q : Amount of Tax of Initial Demand Assume

    Assume that D0 is the initial demand curve for land in this demonstrated figure, and a land tax at a rate of t is imposed. Trying by the landlord to pass the tax forward to the renter, which will cause the: (i) supply curve of housing to sh

    		•
  • Q : Labor Union Goals economically

    Economically, the labor unions can be thought of as the: (i) encouraging competition between the workers for jobs. (ii) Rising the flexibility of nominal wages. (iii) Attempts to cartelize and unite the individual sellers of labor. (iv) Having a goal of the minimum un

    		•
  • Q : Graphical shift of supply curve When

    When market supply and demand curves for Velcro shoelaces were projected into a screen at the front of this room, a raise in the supply of Velcro shoelaces would be illustrated graphically by a shift of supply curve: (1) Towards the center of Earth. (2) To the left. (

    		•