Statistics and Econometrics

Statistics and Econometrics: First Assessment- draft 2013/4

Word Limit : 500-700 words.

The subject for this work is the external indebtendness of different nations.
You will be required to collect data to decide which country is most indebeted to
other countries. An inital look at the gross figures is given here :
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_deb_ext-economy-debt-external
These figures show the USA clearly at the top with the UK second.
The source for these figures is the CIA factbook which you can obtain separately to
get more details and other useful data. This is also a secondary source as it is a
collection of data brought together from different national government statistics.

Each student will look at EIGHT different countries to try to decide which countries
are most indebted. Please do not use figures on internal debt unless you have an
additional reason to do so.

# 8	Norway:		$2,232,000,000,000.00		2010-06-30
# 18		Denmark:		$559,500,000,000.00		2010-06-30
# 28		India:		$237,100,000,000.00		2010-12-31
# 38		Israel:		$89,680,000,000.00		2010-12-31
# 48		Philippines:		$59,770,000,000.00		2010-09-30
# 58		Malta:		$41,020,000,000.00		2010-06-30
# 68		Estonia:		$25,130,000,000.00		2010-12-31
#78		Guatemala:		$17,470,000,000.00		2010-12-31

Explain why the national figures for your countries have been given in dollars in the source given above.

2. Produce a graph in any style you wish to illustrate the relative indebtedness of the
countries.  Please indicate which year the data comes from for each country.

3. Explain why these figures might not be a satisfactory way of showing the extent to     which countries have an external debt problem. Suggest a method of making the
figures more useful and explain why it has been chosen.

4.  Produce a new set of figures according to your suggestion in answer to Q.3.
Present a graph, of the same type  you used in answer to Q.2.,  of your new data.

5. Compare the evidence on external debt problems in your new graph with that of your original graph.

One of our main concerns about indebtedness is the capacity of the country to pay
back in the long run.  You should now use unemployment rates as a proxy index for
the weakness of a nation’s economy.

6.  Present a table of the data on unemployment rates for each of your 8
countries giving sources and definitions.

7. Produce a scatter diagram of the indebtedness  variable from Q.4 (on the Y-
axis) against unemployment  rates (X-axis) and comment on any patterns found on
this graph.

8. Use any statistical method you like to provide a more detailed examination of the
relationships in the graph from Q.7.