Applied Quantitative Research Methods

University of Bristol

Mock Exam 1

Please print out this exam

Write your answers in the space below the questions,

continue on blank pages if necessary

Time allowed: 50 minutes

Do not use your notes, books, phones, tablets, computers, or smartwatches
Non programmable calculators may be used, but you must show the basis of all calculations.

Write your name:

Circle your class tutor and group:

Rabeya Marion Edmund Vigyan

Khatoon Prat Cannon Rantoo

2. Tue 9:00 10. Tue 14:00 1. Mon 11:00 6. Tue 15:00

3. Tue 11:00 8. Tue 12:00 7. Mon 9:00

4. Mon 10:00 9. Fri 12:00 11. Fri 16:00

5. Fri 11:00 12. Mon 11:00

TURN OVER
Question 1
What does the Ordinary Least Squares estimator estimate?
How is it computed (describe the main idea)?
What desirable property does the OLS estimator have if the assumptions of the Classical Linear
Regression Model are satisfied?
(20 marks)
Question 2
We observe the following variables for a random sample of 706 adults:

sleep = number of minutes spent sleeping, per week

work = number of minutes spent working, per week
educ = years of schooling
age = age in years
agesq = age in years squared
male = 1 if male, = 0 if female

and estimate the model

sleepi = B1 + B2 worki + B3 educi + B4 agei + B5 (agei )2 + B6 malei + ui

which produces the following output:

−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
sleep | Coef . Std . E r r . t P>| t | [95% Conf . I n t e r v a l ]
−−−−−−−−−−−−−+−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
work | −.163 .018 −9.01 0.000 −.210 −.128
educ | −11.7 5.87 −2.00 0.046 −23.2 −.195
age | −8.70 11.2 −0.78 0.438 −30.7 13.3
agesq | .128 .134 0.96 0.338 −.134 .391
male | 87.8 34.3 2.56 0.011 20.4 155
_cons | 3840 235 16.34 0.000 3379 4302
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−

2a) What would be the estimated change in the amount of sleep per night if a person would
work 5 more hours per week, all else equal? Is there sufficient evidence of a relationship between
work time and sleep time? Explain.
(10 marks)
2b) What is the marginal effect of age on sleep for a 50-year old individual? What is the overall
shape of the relationship between age and sleep?
(10 marks)

2c) Considering the p-values on the regression coefficients, can you conclude whether the amount
of sleep systematically varies with age? What further tests would be helpful to establish the
importance of age on sleep?
(30 marks)

TURN OVER
2d) Give an example of an omitted variable that could be both a) important in determining
how much time a person spends sleeping and b) correlated with one of the included variables.
Explain why they are correlated and the sign of the correlation. What is the likely consequence
of omitting this variable from regression?
(10 marks)

2e) The above regression defines the gender dummy as 1 if male and 0 if female. We next run
the following regression:

sleepi = B1 + B2 worki + B3 educi + B4 agei + B5 (agei )2 + B6 f emalei + ui

where female is a dummy that equals 1 if the individual is female and 0 if the individual is male.
How would this affect each of the coefficients?
(10 marks)
2f) Finally, we define a variable called ‘male_new’, using the following Stata command:

generate male_new = male+1.

Describe in words how this new variable is defined. If we re-estimate the model above using
the variable ‘male_new’ instead of ‘male’, how does the coefficient on ‘male_new’ in this
regression differ from that on ‘male’ in the model estimated in question a) above? Explain.
What is the interpretation of the coefficient on ‘male_new’?
(10 marks)

END OF EXAM