Econometrics Questions

Question 1

Imagine you are a research assistant for an economic think tank and you have been asked to find the following information:

(a) Sweden’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for the year 2018 (in local currency).

Go online and find the website of the national statistics agency in Sweden. Search its website to find the figure for Sweden’s 2018 GDP (expenditure-based) per capita in current (market) prices. What is the URL of the website and what is the GDP per capita figure to the nearest thousand Swedish Krona (SEK)? Note: Remember to leave source.

(b) An overview of the market for self-care and healthy lifestyles in Europe.

Extract 1 reproduces some information from the website of an organisation that may be relevant. Explain how it would help you rate information from this organisation against the ‘O’ (Objectivity) in the PROMPT criteria.

Extract 1  Information about the Association of the European Self-Care Industry (AESGP) from its website https://aesgp.eu/

About us

The Association of the European Self-Care Industry (AESGP) is the voice of the manufacturers of non-prescription medicines, food supplements and self-care medical devices in Europe, also referred to as self-care/consumer healthcare products.

Our mission

AESGP aspires to lead and champion the self-care agenda with a mission to advance responsible self-care enabling citizens to take better care of their health needs and contribute to the sustainability of European healthcare systems. The principle means by which our mission is accomplished is through the synergy that occurs by bringing together our membership and via meaningful engagement with policy makers, regulators and other stakeholders.

Our strategy

AESGP achieves its mission by focusing on the following strategic objectives:

• Promote the individual, societal and economic value and benefits of self-care.
• Proactively shape the regulatory, legislative, political and economic framework where the consumer healthcare industry operates, with focus on non-prescription medicines, substance-based medical devices and food supplements.
• Build greater trust in self-care and be recognised as a responsible industry.
• Strengthen and develop a holistic network encompassing all relevant stakeholders and serve as a platform for Member Associations.

AESGP (2021)

Question 2

Drawing on your study of Block 1, in one or two sentences in each case, briefly explain why each of the following statements is false.

(a) The upward slope of the supply curve reflects the increasing marginal utility that individuals or households get as they consume more of a good or service.

(b) If markets were completely efficient, this would mean that the economy’s resources are being allocated in the most optimal way so that nobody goes hungry or homeless.

(c) Under the approach advocated by Karl Popper, a robust way to advance knowledge is not to test theories at all since they must be falsified.

(d) According to Robert Shiller, the main use of so-called ‘narrative data’ is to implement Stephen Lukes’ third dimension of power of shaping people’s beliefs and reducing their grievances.

(e) Carrying out research on personal data using ‘Big Data’ quantitative methods is against the law in Europe.

(f) Mixed methods research is only useful in the exploratory phase of a study when carrying out trials.

Question 3

A researcher is working with a sample (1000 cases) designed to be largely representative of the registered businesses of a (fictitious) country. The data includes information about the annual turnover of each company for the most recent year available. Open the Excel file called ‘TMA 01: Annual turnover’ and carry out the following tasks:

(a) Find and remove any missing values.

(b) Using appropriate Excel functions, calculate the following descriptions of the data:

• i.mean
• ii.median
• iii.standard deviation (bearing in mind that this is a sample not the whole population)
• iv.skew
• v.kurtosis.

(c) Using the ‘pivot table’ feature in Excel, create a frequency table of the data.

(d) Create a chart of your choice to illustrate an aspect of the data that you would like to highlight.

(e) Comment on what the chart you created in question (d) is showing.

(f) Explain whether or not 95.5% of the data lies between the mean plus/minus two standard deviations and the reasoning for your answer.

NOTE: You should submit your completed Excel file as the answer to (a), (b), (c) and (d); the Excel file does not use any of your word count.