--%>
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 : Find price elasticity of demand by arc

    When the price of plastic moose heads increases from $25 to $35 and monthly sales drop by 2000 units to 1000 units, by using the arc elasticity formula, in that case their price elasticity of demand equals: (w) 1/3. (x) 3.0. (y) 2.0.

    		•
  • Q : Determine average total cost curve

    LoCalLoCarbo has become the favorite of fad dieters. There in given figure curve D shows: (1) LoCalLoCarbo’s marginal cost curve. (2) LoCalLoCarbo’s average variable cost curve. (3) LoCalLoCarbo’s average total cost curve. (4) the market demand curve

    		•
  • Q : Income Effects-Inferior Goods I have a

    I have a problem in economics on Income Effects-Inferior Goods. Please help me in the following question. When monetary prices drop and the quantity of a good your family purchases reduces as the purchasing power of your family income has risen, the good is a/an: (1)

    		•
  • Q : Transfers to the poor in-kind Transfers

    Transfers to the poor “in-kind” are probably to be favored over cash transfer payments through: (a) people who are skeptical that the poor can manage their income competently. (b) economists concerned with improving effici

    		•
  • Q : Levels of Poverty In 2005 year, the

    In 2005 year, the proportion of American sub-populations along with family incomes below the official poverty line was maximum for individuals: (1) 0 to 10 years old. (2) 11 to 25 years old. (3) 26 to 45 years old. (4) 46 to 65 years old. (5) more tha

    		•
  • Q : Okun's Law Coefficient Is so Large Why

    Why the Okun's Law Coefficient Is so Large? Okun's Law posits not a 1-to-1 relation but a 2.5-to-1 relationship between real GDP growth and the unemployment rate. That is, a one percentage-point fall in the unemployment rate is associated not with a 1 but a 2.5 percent boost in the level of produ

    		•
  • Q : Indication of Lorenz Curves The Lorenz

    The Lorenz curve gives an indication of: (w) the poverty rate. (x) dead end poverty. (y) relative poverty. (z) post-transfer poverty. Hello guys I want your advice. Please recommend some views for above Eco

    		•
  • Q : Government programs influencing

    Government programs assuring farmers minimum legal price floors which surpass equilibrium market prices will outcome: (1) Cheaper food for consumers. (2) Scarcities of food and the potential for famine. (3) Surplus demand in food markets. (4) Maximum equilibrium price

    		•
  • Q : Aid for Dependent Children in Welfare

    The Aid for Dependent Children (AFDC), program has been condemned most for: (w) high crime rates among the poor. (x) the disintegration of low income family structures. (y) indifference to the plight of the less fortunate. (z) the bankruptcies of Clev

    		•
  • Q : Labor History-Yellow Dog Contracts The

    The Yellow dog contracts are now outlawed, however in the early 20th century such agreements among employers: (1) Not to purchase intermediate goods generated by unionized labor hindered labor market re-forms. (2) And workers specifying that the workers would not conn

    		•