week1-data-visualization

[week1-data-visualization]

Developing a Research Question

I will be using Gapminder dataset because of its simplicity and because I'm interested in studying countries' social and economic differences.

Research Question

In the first attempt, I'm focusing in find which variables correlate the most between themselves. I'm hoping the correlation can be used to cluster countries by their economic development, cultural traits or political system. So, a first glance, I'm selecting the variables: Polity Score, Oil per person, Electric consumption per person, Employment rate, Life expectancy, Armed force rate and Urban rate.

For the second topic, I will be evaluating how the variables above interact with the Female employment rate. The participation of women in the labour market may be an effect of the democratic system, as the latter tends to score the public opinion of overall citizens and women.

Gapminder Codebook Selection and Variables

Variable: polityscore Description: 2009 Democracy score (Polity). Overall polity score from the Polity IV dataset, was calculated by subtracting an autocracy score from a democracy score. The summary measure of a country's democratic and free nature. -10 is the lowest value, and 10 is the highest. Source: Polity IV Project

Variable: oilperperson Description: 2010 oil Consumption per capita (tonnes per year and person) Source: BP

Variable: relectricperperson Description: 2008 residential electricity consumption, per person (kWh). The amount of residential electricity consumption per person during the given year, is counted in kilowatt-hours (kWh). Source: International Energy Agency

Variable: employrate Description: 2007 total employees age 15+ (% of population). Percentage of the total population, age above 15, that has been employed during the given year. Source: International Labour Organization

Variable: lifeexpectancy Description: 2011 life expectancy at birth (years) The average number of years a newborn child would live if current mortality patterns were to stay the same. Source: 1. Human Mortality Database, 2. World Population Prospects, 3. Publications and files byhistory prof. James C Riley, 4. Human Lifetable Database.

Variable: armedforcesrate Description: Armed forces personnel (% of total labor force) Source: Work Development Indicators

Variable: urbanrate Description: 2008 urban population (% of total) Urban population refers to people living in urban areas as defined by national statistical offices (calculated using World Bank population estimates and urban ratios from the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects). Source: World Bank

Variable: femaleemployrate Description: 2007 female employees age 15+ (% of population). Percentage of female population, age above 15, that has been employed during the given year. Source: International Labour Organization.

Hypothesis proposed

The polity score variable can be measured as a regression of the others variables proposed. The score in the democracy model can be modelled by variables such as employment rate, consumption measure, productivity, military presence, and economic development.

The share of females in the labour market and the government is an indicator of political freedom and thus, development.

Literature review

Taking into account the literature review I performed, using Google Scholar, I found several academic studies and research based on the relationship between democracy and various other economic factors that affect a country.

References

KNACK, Stephen; KEEFER, Philip. Institutions and economic performance: Cross-country tests using alternative institutional indicators. 1995.

MATLAND, Richard E. Women's representation in national legislatures: Developed and developing countries. Legislative Studies Quarterly, p. 109-125, 1998.

DASGUPTA, Partha; WEALE, Martin. On measuring the quality of life. World development, v. 20, n. 1, p. 119-131, 1992.