Social Studies 201

Winter 2005

Problem Set 1

Due Friday, January 21, 2005

1. This question asks you to comment on the attached article “Regina taxes above average,” by Neil Scott, published in the Leader-Post, December 23, 2004, p. B1. Read through the Leader-Post article and write a paragraph or two addressing any problems you see with the data or analysis, or any questions you may have about the data cited and the comments of those interviewed. Some of the issues of data production in Chapter 2 of the text, may guide you. Mention any other issues you consider relevant.

Note: Some of the information contained in this article comes from “University tuition fees,” from “2004 Residential Property Taxes and Utility Charges Survey,” conducted by the City of Edmonton. The survey report is available at web site: http://www.edmonton.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_272_214_0_43/http%3B/CMSServer/COEWeb/infrastructure+planning+and+building/economic+information/Residential+Property+Tax+and+Utility+Charges+Survey.htm.

2. Use the questionnaire of the Survey of Student Attitudes and Experiences Fall 1998 (SSAE98) for this question. For each of questions 4, 13, 18, 23, 53 in the questionnaire, (i) clearly identify or name the variable in the question; (ii) state the highest level of measurement the variable has (nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio), explaining your reasoning; and (iii) for each variable explain whether it is discrete or continuous.

3. The data in Tables 1a and 1b report the ages of two groups of Saskatchewan individuals: (a) fifty individuals who were employed in 1996 and (b) forty individuals who reported that they had never worked in the labour force. These data come from the Census of Canada, 1996. For each of the two groups, construct an (i) unordered and (ii) ordered stem-and-leaf display. (iii) From the stem-and-leaf displays construct frequency distribution tables of annual hours spent volunteering for cultural and recreational organizations for each of the two age groups. (iv) In words, briefly describe and compare the two frequency distributions.

Table 1a. Ages of fifty Saskatchewan employed individuals, Census of Canada, 1996

31	33	35	28	65
38	16	52	48	46
63	31	17	37	30
73	33	37	37	21
31	39	50	44	42
29	37	26	25	60
40	36	24	56	48
51	60	39	38	37
47	36	35	21	42
56	50	48	63	63

Table 1b. Ages of forty Saskatchewan individuals who have never worked in the labour force, Census of Canada, 1996

16	67	77	16	62
21	16	35	19	29
16	16	85	72	23
41	15	61	85	36
17	19	85	68	78
30	79	15	60	29
25	21	15	66	76
16	20	67	15	85

Source: Statistics Canada. Census of Canada, 1996. Public Use Microdata File of Individuals: Saskatchewan (1/36 sample) [machine readable data file]. Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada. April 15, 1999.