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ECN 120 STATISTICAL REPORT-2021

Please, read very carefully EVERYTHING below

IMPORTANT: This document contains 5 sections: Section 1 motivates the report in terms of learning needs; Section 2 points you towards the data you need to use and the topic of the report; Section 3 gives you an outline to follow to prepare the report; Section 4 tells you the marking criteria; and Section 5 tells you how to submit the report. THE ENTIRE REPORT has a 1,000 word limit (double spaced, 12 point type, one inch margins). The statistical report, inclusive of figures, tables, and exclusive of references cannot be longer than 10 pages. There will be no appendix in the report. The report is worth 35% of the final grade on the course. The Statistical report is due on January 27.

YOU MUST NOT USE OTHER DATA THAN THE DATA in the OECD web-site linked below to produce the statistical report.

1. MOTIVATION FOR THE REPORT

As economists, we need to make sense of data all the time. This not only means that we need to be able to present data given to us, but it also means that we need to be able to select the most appropriate data to use to address/describe a given problem, and motivate our choices. In other words, we need to make choices and motivate them all the time. This report is a step in your training towards becoming a professional economist. You need to make choices and motivate them, as you will need to do in your profession. Since this is probably the first statistical report that you prepare, we help you by providing the structure that you need to follow when preparing the report in section 3 below. Additionally, as economists dealing with data, you need to be able to process a lot of information when you receive briefs on what you need to do when preparing reports, and you need to follow instruction thoroughly when preparing a statistical report. This is why part of the grade on this report (see the section 4 on marking) marks how well you follow our instructions below. For the purpose of this report you can pretend to be an analyst working at the OECD, and suppose that you are asked by your boss to follow the brief below.

2. DATA AND TOPIC OF THE REPORT

Use data from the OECD to study differences between 2 countries in 3 Environment indicators for years 2005-2015 (you can study OECD or non-OECD countries, or compare one OECD country with one non-OECD country).

You can find environment-related indicators in the following web-site:

https://stats.oecd.org/

In the web-site linked above on the menu on the left there is a section called “Environment”. If you click on the “+” sign next to the word “Environment” the menu expands and you can see that there are many sub-menus each with a “+” sign next to it, and if you expand each of the sub-menus you will see that there are many indicators you can choose from.

For instance, just as an example, after you click the “+” sign to the left of the section called “Environment” you can see that a submenu is called “Air and Climate” (you are by all means NOT restricted to study indicators in the “Air and Climate” submenu). If you click the “+” sign next to the submenu “Air and Climate” you can see several indicators.

Please, find a screenshot of this just as a guidance (See, the “Air and Climate” submenu has indicators on “Greenhouse gas emissions by source”, “Air Emission Account”, etc…)

When you click on any of the indicators a table opens in the middle of the page.

Be mindful that each selection you make is a different indicator and you ONLY are allowed to select 3 indicators to compare the two countries. This limit is intended to help you: remember that you only have 1,000 words and that you need to motivate everything you do, and you also need to explain trends in the indicators that you have selected for the period under study.

Finally, consider the area in the screenshot above that I have circled in red. If you click the arrow in the circle you will be shown how the statistics in the Table in the middle of the screenshot are calculated.

Now that you have understood how the selection of the statistics work, you are welcome to explore the different sub-menus of the “Environment” section (for example, the screenshot above shows that there are submenus for “Land Resources” and “Biodiversity”, etc.., ) to understand which statistics are available for which countries, and start thinking which indicators you want to use. To use the data you need to download them. You can do so for each Table by selecting the option “Export” at the top of the Table where there is the option to export data to Excel.

-From Excel you can prepare graphs and/ or prepare tables for the three selected indicators for the two countries to place in your report.

-You need to motivate why you have decided to compare differences in those three  indicators for the two countries that you have selected (you need to do some research on the two countries and those indicators), so that it is clear why it makes sense that you have selected those 2 countries and those indicators to compare.

-You also need to see whether there is something that happened in the countries you have considered in the time period you are looking at that could potentially explain trends in the indicators that you have selected to report. Again, you must not get any other data (and please DO NOT GET other data), but you can, given what may have happened in the countries, come up with some hypotheses that could explain the pattern in the data and say which data you would like to have to study more in depth the pattern shown by the environment indicators that you have selected in the countries in the period considered.

- For a number of countries some indicators are missing for various years. As a rule of thumb, you should not select an indicator that has more than 4 missing years in the period 2005-2015. If one or more years are missing for one or more of the indicators that you are using for the period 2005-2015, you must clearly indicate in the report which years are missing and why it still makes sense to focus on that indicator for your analysis for the countries that you have selected despite the missing data.

3. STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT

This section provides you with guidance on how you MUST structure the report, as well as some guidance on what counts and what does not count towards the word limit. In other words, the report needs to have all the sections detailed below.

You can have the tables/graphs embedded in the report close to the text that refers to them or at the end of the report. In this second case you need to put the figures (graphs) first and then the tables. You need to refer (meaning explain) in the text of the report to every graph and table that you place in the report (in other words, there is no redundant figure/table). The section below needs to be in that order (Title, Table of Contents, List of Figures and Tables, Executive summary, Introduction and Motivation, Statistical Analysis, Directions for Future Analysis/Policy Recommendation/s, and References)

-Title: make it informative of your analysis: the words in the title do not count towards the word limit of the report.

-Table of Contents: see any report by OECD (for example) and do similarly with your sections: write the section number, the title of the section, and the page where the section is: the Table of Contents does not count towards the word limit of the report.

-List of Figures and Tables: Here you write the list of figures and tables-namely their titles- as well as the pages where the reader can find those. The list of figures and Tables does not count towards the word limit for the report.

-Executive Summary: This is a crucial part of your report. It is most likely the only thing that the busiest person will read. So you need to summarize in bullet-like points the main take home points of your analysis as well as the main recommendations. This part does count towards the word limit of the report.

-Introduction and Motivation: Here you explain why the topic of the report is important, and why you decided to study the two countries that you have picked, as well as the reasons why you decided to concentrate on the indicators you have decided to concentrate on. This part does count towards the word limit of the report.

-Statistical analysis: In this part you present your analysis of the data. You will comment on what your Tables and/or graphs intend to represent and you will motivate why you decided to choose such representation of the data. So, for instance, you need to motivate why a graph is there (what is its purpose), as well as what does it show that the reader should care about on the topic of the report. The same goes for the Tables you might decide to include.  This will feed into your executive summary. This part does count towards the word limit of the report.

-Direction for further analysis and Policy Recommendation/s: Here you build upon what you find in the section/s on Statistical Analysis and you discuss what your findings mean for government action and what else there is need to study to better understand the trends you have looked at (is there need to collect other data? If so why?). This part will feed into the executive summary as well. This part does count towards the word limit of the report.

-References: Of course, a well-researched statistical story has looked for good sources, so you are encouraged to use references in your report (you can also cite statistics from your references that help you strengthen your arguments). References do not count towards the word limit of the report.

4. HOW WE MARK THE REPORT

We will mark the report based on:

-How well you followed the brief outlined in sections 1-3 above (30% of the grade in the report).

- How well you motivate and present what you do (35% of the grade in the report, including word limit).

-How well statistics are presented, namely the quality of the graphs and tables and their interpretation and description (35% of the grade in the report).

5. SUBMISSION

Coursework must be submitted electronically through Blackboard using the Turnitin Feedback Studio. You must use the coversheet available in the Turnitin Feedback Studio—entitled “ECN Turnitin Submission Template.docx”. Failure to use this coversheet will incur a 5% deduction of your coursework mark, which will be applied before any late penalties have been imposed. The coversheet includes a space to copy and paste your report. After you copy and paste your report, please make sure that you are happy with the formatting (some changes may happen automatically). You must use a 12 point font, double-spacing, and have a minimum of one inch margins all around. Unauthorised late submissions after noon on the day of the deadline will incur a penalty of 5%. An additional 5% penalty will be added after 24 hours from noon on the day of the deadline and then at 24 hour intervals, up to 5 working days late. After that, a mark of zero will be awarded.

IMPORTANT FINAL REMARK

You are strongly encouraged to read this document (the Statistical Report brief) and post questions in the ECN 120 discussion board. Please, avoid posting questions that have their answer in this document, as in that case you will be simply told to read this document. Please, notice that the lecturer in this module CANNOT answer individual e-mails on the Statistical Report, for obvious reasons of fairness towards other students.

Finally, importantly, the OECD web-site is well maintained. However, like all other web-sites, it may have periods of very high traffic in which the statistics are a bit slow to load, or are temporarily unavailable when you access the site. In such rare occurrences, please wait a bit and try again later. Because of the above, you are strongly encouraged to download and double check the indicators that you need early on.