ECON 1030 – BUSINESS STATISTICS 1

Assessment 3: Individual Assignment

Instructions:

This is an individual assignment with a total of 40 marks. The allocation of marks is as follows:

Statistical Analysis:                32

(including Excel)       

Professional Report:               8

Total:                                       40

The response to the assignment must be provided in the form of a professional report with no more than 10 pages (excluding cover page). The structure of your professional report must include: 1] A Title, 2] An Executive Summary, 3] An Introduction, 4] Analysis, and 5] Conclusions.

You must submit an electronic copy of your assignment in Canvas. See the attached Report Template for more details.  

This assignment requires the use of Microsoft Excel.  If you have Windows, you will need to use the Data Analysis Tool Pack.  If you have a Mac with Excel 2011, you may need to use StatPlus: MAC LE. The Excel workbook you submit needs to be clear and carefully organised. It will be treated as an appendix to your report, i.e. not included in the page count. You will need to take the relevant results from your Excel workbook and incorporate into your report. Do not refer to the Excel workbook within the Professional report. The Report needs to be standalone.

Presentation Instructions:

Your written professional report should comply with the following presentation standards:

1. Typed using a standard professional font type (e.g. Times Roman), 12-point font size.

2. 1.5-line spacing, numbered pages, and clear use of titles and section headings.

3. Delivered as a Word (.doc or .docx) or PDF (.pdf) file.

4. Checked for spelling, typographical and grammatical errors. Where relevant, round to 3 decimal places.

5. With all relevant tables and charts, the report should be no more than 10 pages long.

Problem Description:

This is a further analysis of the gender pay gap in the Australian population. According to a recent report by KPMG Consulting, gender discrimination continues to be the single largest factor contributing to the gender pay gap (KPMG, 2019). In order to estimate the extent of discrimination in the job market where women with identical labour market characteristics as their male counterparts receive different wages, you will estimate a set of linear regression models.

Since this is an additional analysis on the gender pay gap, the content in the Introduction section of your report may overlap with the one in the Group Assignment. However, you are encouraged to develop/source new background materials. You will use the same dataset as in Assignment 2. The data are drawn from the 2019 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. The sample used for analysis comprises 1099 full-time Australian workers in the age group 20-74. The dataset contains the following information:

1. :weekly earnings in 1000 AU dollars of full-time workers. [note the unit of measurement]
2. : the dummy variable male = 1 if the individual is a male, and = 0 for a female.
3. the dummy variable degree = 1 if the individual has a bachelor degree or higher qualification, and = 0 for lower than degree qualifications.
4. the dummy variable skill = 1 if the individual is highly skilled, and = 0 if not highly skilled.
5. number of years of work experience.

[Marks distribution: 5 + 6 + 9 + 2 + 5 + 2 + 3 = 32 marks; professional report = 8 marks]

Locate the data file (IndividualBusStats.xls) on CANVAS. 

References:

KPMG Consulting. (2016). She’s price(d)less: The economics of the gender pay gap <https://home.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/au/pdf/2019/gender-pay-gap-economics-full-report-2019.pdf>