Spring 2010
Final Exam Questions
Due by electronic submission: Noon, Thursday, May 13
Instructions
1. This part of the exam is open-book; you may use whatever outside materials you wish. However, you may not communicate with anyone except the instructor about the exam.
2. The exam is due electronically at noon on Thursday, May 13. There is no time limit, but you should not need to spend more than a few hours on it.
3. You are responsible for making sure that you understand each question clearly. In case of any ambiguity, be sure to consult the instructor.
4. When you discuss the estimated effects of one variable on another, but sure to consider both statistical significance and economic significance.
5. If you use Stata commands/options or statistical methods that have not been discussed in class, you should briefly describe what the command/test/method does and justify why it is appropriate to use. You should supplement your answers with supporting Stata output when it is useful.
Question #1
Read the paper "Evaluating the Impact of Changing Mississippi's Tobacco Tax," by Al Myles and Albert J. Allen. Suppose that you have been asked by the editor of a journal to review this paper for publication. Prepare a 1-2 page review of the econometric analysis in the paper. You should consider whether the analysis is appropriate for answering the question the authors pose, issues of internal and external validity arising from the analysis, and ultimately whether you find the authors' answer convincing.
Question #2
Read the paper "Why is U.S. Poverty Higher in Nonmetropolitan than Metropolitan Areas? Evidence from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics," by Monica Fisher. Perform the same analysis that you did for Question #1 for this paper.
Question #3
The data set fish.dta contains data on daily sales at New York's Fulton Fish Market. You are to use this data set to estimate the daily demand curve for fish. Write up a summary of your findings, including a justification of your specification and estimation methods and the implied assumptions you are making. Test these assumptions when possible.