Overview:

Each student is expected to complete a mapping project. In this project the student chooses some economic variable that varies across locations in the US from www.nhgis.org, e.g., average income by county. They then use statistical software (R, Python, Stata, or others) to plot this variable on a map of the US. In addition, they write up to 400 words on a topic inspired by this map. For example, if you show average income you could write about income inequality across space and some of the reasons for income inequality across space that we have learnt     about or policy attempts to alleviate it. Students must hand in a pdf with the map and write up  and their code that constructs the map. Our TA Steven Brownstone will hold a session on how   to use mapping software and be generally available to provide guidance on this project. A           separate guide on the Mapping Project with substantially more detail is available on Canvas.

Requirements for Mapping Project Proposal – due May 15:

The mapping project proposal needs to have the following ingredients:

1.   A motivation for why you are interested in the variable you chose. A description of why you chose your variable.

2.   A brief description of your data: geography, year, variable name, etc.

3.   Some statistics from the data: e.g., the ten regions with the highest or lowest value of your variable.

Use example_proposal.pdf on Canvas as a guide.

Step-by-step Guide:

1.   Go to www.nhgis.org and choose a year, variable, and spatial resolution you find interesting.

2.   Write down your motivation for the variable, year, and spatial resolution. See the example proposal on Canvas for how to do that.

3.   Download the data from nhgis.org, describe it, and compute summary statistics.

Requirements for final Mapping Project – due June 8

The final mapping project needs to have the following ingredients:

1.   About 200 words that explain which variable you choose and why. We are looking for     evidence that you thought about what may be interesting to look at and can explain       your reasoning well. A bad motivation: “I find wages interesting and so I decided to         graph wages across counties.” A great motivation “I noticed that more rural areas in the US seem to have lower incomes. I read some articles about rural poverty that suggest     one of the reasons is the lack of employers in those regions. So, I choose to look at the   number of establishments per capita in each county.”

2.   A description of your variable and the data you use as well as some summary statistics of it (this part is basically what you submitted as mapping project proposal).