ST 445         
 27 March 2008 
 *I'm posting this early so that you can prepare.  I intend to update
  these files soon.*

 Homework #7 -- due Wednesday, 23 April 2008 

 Since most of you are citizens (and taxpayers) of the state of
 North Carolina, it is important that you are informed about the
 state.  In that vein, you should know how economic and political
 situations affect the health and well-being of all citizens.
 
 I have assembled a number of data files from certain NC government
 websites that include data at the county level.  Your assignment
 is to briefly describe the data, and assess any effects of certain
 economic or similarly related factors may have.

 The economic data are in the file NCCounty03q4.txt, a tab-delimited
 file of selected economic data for each county.  The list of variables
 is given in the file NCCounty.variables.  These files, and all of
 the files for this homework are in the nc2006 directory.
 
 You should relate some of the economic variables in NCCounty03q4.txt
 to one of a number of 'outcomes' that is, to the health and well-being
 of the state.  As of Tuesday afternoon, I have included links to
 seven pages from the NC Center for Health Statistics, and have some
 of these data downloaded and saved as tab-delimited files.
 I also have four files of corrections data.  I will be adding to
 these data as time permits.

 Your assignment is to describe the 'outcomes' data and investigate
 some relationships with the economic data.  Particularly appropriate
 would be correlations (proc corr) or crosstabulations (proc freq),
 as well as scatterplots.  Your work should take the form of a report
 or letter to a state legislator advocating some legislative action,
 such as spending more (or less) for something, supported by your 
 analysis and/or figures.

 As before, part of your task is to describe the data.  Use tables,
 charts, figures as appropriate, and make sure to use labels and
 titles.  Use of user-written formats is encouraged.  The text should
 take 1-2 pages, with 1-3 pages of tables/figures/charts.

 Note:
 1) Your audience should be state legislators, not other students,
    nor me, nor NC Office of Fiscal Research.
 2) Be aware that many counties in North Carolina are quite small,
    both in area and population, and so that analysis of count data
    from these counties requires care.  My suggestion is to limit
    your analysis to the largest counties, and avoid the smallest.
 3) You should be aware that the largest counties will have the 
    largest counts, the smallest counties the smallest -- of anything
    -- regardless of any cause/effect.  For example, Mecklenberg and
    Wake counties have the highest numbers of doctors and the highest 
    incidence of cancer while Camden and Clay counties have small numbers
    of both.  But does the apparent positive correlation here mean that
    we should try to reduce the number of doctors to reduce cancer
    incidence?  Base any relationship on RATES: number/population.