Problem Set 1
Due Friday 3 October, 2003.
A few guidelines:
- You are strongly encouraged to work with others. You may (and
should) discuss any aspect of the questions with anyone. However,
your write-up should represent your own understanding.
- Problem write-ups are your permanent record of your understanding
of the material covered. This is especially true in a course such as
this in which there are no exams. As such, it's important that you
explain your methods thoroughly and fully.
- For the longer response questions, please type your responses
unless you have unusually neat handwriting. Thanks.
- Estimate the Gini coefficient for some real data set. You could
do another sports team, average incomes across countries, data from
the U.S. (or other) census, salaries at
some institution for which data is publicly available, etc. You
should consult me before settling on a data set to explore.
It's fine if you use the same data set as others.
Your calculation should be accompanied by a brief explanation of what
the Gini coefficient is and how you calculated it.
- Discuss and interpret the Gini coefficient you calculated. In one
or two paragraphs, address the following questions:
- Do you think the Gini coefficient is indicative of a problem
(moral or ethical) or does it indicate a situation which is fair and
just?
- Why do you think the Gini coefficient is what it is? What
mechanisms might have led to the observed level of inequality?
In your response, you might wish to compare your Gini coefficient to
others that we've calculated or read about. (Obviously, there are no
"right" answers to the questions above.)
- Calculate the mean and median values for your data set.
- Calculate the P90/P10 ratio for your data set.
- True or false: If two distributions have the same Gini
coefficients, then those two distributions must be identical. Explain
your answer.
[Dave]
[Core Course]
[COA]
Web page maintained by dave@hornacek.coa.edu.