Homework 1

Author

Affiliation

Your Name Here

Old Dominion University

Before You Start

The section below gives you a situation and some data. Decide what is worth looking into, use what you have learned to look into it, and write it up as a short report for a reader who has not seen the data. Do not use any data that is not already provided to you. At the end, be sure to complete the Process Reflection.

What I have given you:

This week’s tools are the course methods I expect to see in your report.
An outline to use for the report. Note that the outline is only a suggestion, as you may find that the different sections bleed into one another, so you can structure your report however you’d like.
Some inspiration for the report. Again, these are merely suggestions, and the best reports will go somewhere we did not think of.

How to use AI: You may (and should!) use AI tools to help you throughout, but what you submit is your responsibility, not the AI’s. Read what it gives you, check it against the course material, and change whatever you would not stand behind. Never submit something you don’t understand, and make sure that what you submit is written in your own voice.

What to submit: Submit the rendered .html file on Canvas, along with the video described at the end. Your submission will be graded with the course rubric.

This week’s tools (Modules 1–3)

Summary statistics (including weighted averages), visualization, confidence intervals, and hypothesis tests. Use a loop or a conditional at least once where it fits. Be sure to consider tools from earlier in the course, too.

Outline

The data: Describe the data. For example: what is one row? How many rows? Provide some summary measures of the data. What do the important distributions look like? What about some important pairwise relationships? Make note of the choices you made about the data (dropped, recoded, transformed) and why.
Analysis: Provide an analysis of the data which may include tables, figures, and/or models. Say why you include, and what you learn, from each.
Findings and discussion: In plain language, what can you conclude? What can’t you conclude? What do you think about the topic? What else would you want to know or have included in the data?

Cigarettes

These data (documentation) record cigarette prices, sales, and other information for 46 U.S. states from 1963 to 1992. What happened to cigarette prices and smoking over this period, and what do these data tell you about how people respond to price?

Some inspiration

You do not need to incorporate all of the points below, but they are a good place to start. This is your first report, so they are more detailed than they will be in later assignments.

Getting to know the data

What is one row? How many states and years are there? What does each variable measure, and in what units?
Why would someone bother to collect ndi? What about pimin? Why might the price in neighboring states matter for a state’s cigarette sales?

Over time

Has the price of cigarettes gone up or down? Has smoking? Can you compare prices from 1963 and 1992 directly? Apply similar logic to that of smoking.
Is “the average” the same for the average state as it is for the average American? Does it matter?

Comparing states, prices, and smoking

Pick a year and build a 95% confidence interval for the price of a pack of cigarettes. For that year, what fraction of states fall inside of it? What fraction of the population live in those states? Is that what you expected? What does the interval tell you?
Pick a year and calculate the price elasticity for each state. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the price elasticity of demand for cigarettes in that year. Describe the distribution of price elasticity of demand across the US. Then, calculate the price elasticity of demand for the entire country (think about how to weight the states). Where does the US elasticity fall relative to the state-level distribution?

Process Reflection

In your own words (Claude Code is not allowed to write this, and it knows that): how did you use Claude on this homework, where did its first attempt fall short, and what did you change or reject, and why?

Video Presentation

Record one continuous screen recording, about ten to twelve minutes for the presentation (no shorter than five, no longer than twenty) plus the two questions below, and upload it to Canvas. Your recording must show your entire screen (including the time) and include your voice. Showing your face is optional.

Part 1: Presentation (20 points). Present your report as if you were briefing a boss or client who has not seen it. Say what question you asked, what data and methods you used, what you found, and what you think it means and does not mean. You should keep your rendered report open while you talk so you can reference items like tables, figures, etc., but you should not read from the report.

Part 2: Questions (10 points). Immediately after, open a new Claude Code session (have it open in the background so you don’t waste time opening it during the recording) and paste the prompt from https://alexcardazzi.github.io/econ311/oral_check_prompt.txt, with your report’s file name filled in. Claude will ask you two questions about your report, as if it were a boss, client, or audience member. Claude may ask why you made a particular choice in your report, so be ready to explain it and to say how a different choice would have changed your results. If a question is unclear, you may ask Claude to reword or clarify it in your own words, once per question. Answer each one out loud, then type “next question” to move on. Keep your report open if you like, but your answers should show that you understand your work, not that you can read it back. Do not edit the prompt, and do not ask Claude to help you answer.

--- title: "Homework 1" author: "Your Name Here" institute: "Old Dominion University" format: html: theme: united code-tools: true code-fold: true code-summary: "Code" code-copy: hover link-external-newwindow: true tbl-cap-location: top fig-cap-location: bottom self-contained: true editor: source --- ```{r setup, include=FALSE} # INCLUDE THIS AT THE START OF EACH HOMEWORK # DO NOT EDIT THIS knitr::opts_chunk$set(fig.align = 'center') knitr::opts_chunk$set(out.width = '90%') knitr::opts_chunk$set(results = 'hold') knitr::opts_chunk$set(fig.show = 'hold') knitr::opts_chunk$set(dev='svg') knitr::opts_chunk$set(error = TRUE) par(mar = c(4.1, 4.1, 1.1, 4.1)) ``` ## Before You Start The section below gives you a situation and some data. Decide what is worth looking into, use what you have learned to look into it, and write it up as a short report for a reader who has not seen the data. Do not use any data that is not already provided to you. At the end, be sure to complete the **Process Reflection**. **What I have given you**: - **This week's tools** are the course methods I expect to see in your report. - An **outline** to use for the report. Note that the outline is only a suggestion, as you may find that the different sections bleed into one another, so you can structure your report however you'd like. - **Some inspiration** for the report. Again, these are merely suggestions, and the best reports will go somewhere we did not think of. **How to use AI**: You may (and should!) use AI tools to help you throughout, but what you submit is your responsibility, not the AI's. Read what it gives you, check it against the course material, and change whatever you would not stand behind. Never submit something you don't understand, and make sure that what you submit is written in your own voice. **What to submit**: Submit the rendered `.html` file on Canvas, along with the video described at the end. Your submission will be graded with the [course rubric](https://alexcardazzi.github.io/econ311/rubric.html). --- ### This week's tools (Modules 1–3) Summary statistics (including weighted averages), visualization, confidence intervals, and hypothesis tests. Use a loop or a conditional at least once where it fits. Be sure to consider tools from earlier in the course, too. ### Outline - **The data**: Describe the data. For example: what is one row? How many rows? Provide some summary measures of the data. What do the important distributions look like? What about some important pairwise relationships? Make note of the choices you made about the data (dropped, recoded, transformed) and why. - **Analysis**: Provide an analysis of the data which may include tables, figures, and/or models. Say why you include, and what you learn, from each. - **Findings and discussion**: In plain language, what can you conclude? What can't you conclude? What do you think about the topic? What else would you want to know or have included in the data? ## Cigarettes These [data](https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/Ecdat/Cigar.csv) ([documentation](https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/Ecdat/Cigar.html)) record cigarette prices, sales, and other information for 46 U.S. states from 1963 to 1992. What happened to cigarette prices and smoking over this period, and what do these data tell you about how people respond to price? ### Some inspiration You do not need to incorporate all of the points below, but they are a good place to start. This is your first report, so they are more detailed than they will be in later assignments. **Getting to know the data** - What is one row? How many states and years are there? What does each variable measure, and in what units? - Why would someone bother to collect `ndi`? What about `pimin`? Why might the price in *neighboring* states matter for a state's cigarette sales? **Over time** - Has the price of cigarettes gone up or down? Has smoking? Can you compare prices from 1963 and 1992 directly? Apply similar logic to that of smoking. - Is "the average" the same for the average *state* as it is for the average *American*? Does it matter? **Comparing states, prices, and smoking** - Pick a year and build a 95% confidence interval for the price of a pack of cigarettes. For that year, what fraction of states fall inside of it? What fraction of the *population* live in those states? Is that what you expected? What does the interval tell you? - Pick a year and calculate the price elasticity for each state. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the price elasticity of demand for cigarettes in that year. Describe the distribution of price elasticity of demand across the US. Then, calculate the price elasticity of demand for the entire country (think about how to weight the states). Where does the US elasticity fall relative to the state-level distribution? ## Process Reflection In your own words (Claude Code is not allowed to write this, and it knows that): how did you use Claude on this homework, where did its first attempt fall short, and what did you change or reject, and why? ## Video Presentation Record one continuous screen recording, about ten to twelve minutes for the presentation (no shorter than five, no longer than twenty) plus the two questions below, and upload it to Canvas. Your recording must show your entire screen (including the time) and include your voice. Showing your face is optional. **Part 1: Presentation (20 points).** Present your report as if you were briefing a boss or client who has not seen it. Say what question you asked, what data and methods you used, what you found, and what you think it means and does not mean. You should keep your rendered report open while you talk so you can reference items like tables, figures, etc., but you should not read from the report. **Part 2: Questions (10 points).** Immediately after, open a **new** Claude Code session (have it open in the background so you don't waste time opening it during the recording) and paste the prompt from [https://alexcardazzi.github.io/econ311/oral_check_prompt.txt](https://alexcardazzi.github.io/econ311/oral_check_prompt.txt), with your report's file name filled in. Claude will ask you two questions about your report, as if it were a boss, client, or audience member. Claude may ask why you made a particular choice in your report, so be ready to explain it and to say how a different choice would have changed your results. If a question is unclear, you may ask Claude to reword or clarify it in your own words, once per question. Answer each one out loud, then type "next question" to move on. Keep your report open if you like, but your answers should show that you understand your work, not that you can read it back. Do not edit the prompt, and do not ask Claude to help you answer.