Web Exercises

  1. Using the site: https://www.data.gov/cities/community/cities/datasets, select and explore a dataset of interest. Develop a few research questions that you would ant to measure regarding trends in local cities, and then apply basic descriptive statistics to analyze the data (mean, median, etc.). by the FBI Crime Statistics Division, explore trends in crime using one of the secondary data collections. Discuss how this data provides a useful tool for public officials and government agencies to make decisions.
  2. Review the DHS Program site at: http://dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm for datasets relating to demographic and health trends. The site may require setting up a free login. Select a dataset for a specific country, and analyze demographical and policy trends. Discuss how the findings of basic data analysis may be used to inform policy makers.
  3. Review the site by the National Bureau of Economic research: http://www.nber.org/data/. Select a specific area or topic of interest to you relating to the economy, and download the dataset as an Excel file. Run some basic statistical tests (measures of center, correlation analysis, etc.) on the data, and discuss what trends are apparent from your analysis.