EC 771B Spring 2000 Problem Set 3

Christopher F. Baum

Due at classtime, Tuesday 4 April 2000

Set up a Stata program (do-file) to provide the empirical results requested. Hand in a copy of the program, annotated with your comments as warranted. The comments may be handwritten on the printout if they are clearly legible.

Use the Wooldridge PRISON dataset, available from within Stata via the command

use http://fmwww.bc.edu/ec-p/data/wooldridge/PRISON

This dataset contains 714 observations, longitudinal data on the following variables:


   1. state                    alphabetical; DC = 9
  2. year                     80 to 93
  3. govelec                  =1 if gubernatorial election
  4. black                    proportion black
  5. metro                    proportion in metro. areas
  6. unem                     proportion unemployed
  7. criv                     violent crimes per 100,000
  8. crip                     property crimes per 100,000
  9. lcriv                    log(criv)
 10. lcrip                    log(crip)
 11. gcriv                    lcriv - lcriv_1
 12. gcrip                    lcrip - lcrip_1
 13. y81                      =1 if year == 81
 14. y82                      
 15. y83                      
 16. y84                      
 17. y85                      
 18. y86                      
 19. y87                      
 20. y88                      
 21. y89                      
 22. y90                      
 23. y91                      
 24. y92                      
 25. y93                      
 26. ag0_14                   prop. pop. 0 to 14 yrs
 27. ag15_17                  prop. pop. 15 to 17 yrs
 28. ag18_24                  prop. pop. 18 to 24 yrs
 29. ag25_34                  prop. pop. 25 to 34 yrs
 30. incpc                    per capita income, nominal
 31. polpc                    police per 100,000 residents
 32. gincpc                   log(incpc) - log(incpc_1)
 33. gpolpc                   lpolpc - lpolpc_1
 34. cag0_14                  change in ag0_14
 35. cag15_17                 change in ag15_17
 36. cag18_24                 change in ag18_24
 37. cag25_34                 change in ag25_34
 38. cunem                    change in unem
 39. cblack                   change in black
 40. cmetro                   change in metro
 41. pris                     prison pop. per 100,000
 42. lpris                    log(pris)
 43. gpris                    lpris - lpris[t-1]
 44. final1                   =1 if fnl dec on litig, curr yr
 45. final2                   =1 if dec on litig, prev 2 yrs

Fit and evaluate the following models. You will want to use 'iis' and 'tis' to convince Stata that these are panel data.

1. a. Log of violent crime rate = f(black, metro, polpc), with year dummies, via fixed effects (see xtreg). Discuss expected signs and findings.

b. Same model, via GLS random effects.

c. Perform the Hausman test and evaluate the results.

2. a. Log of property crime rate = f(black, metro, polpc), with year dummies, via fixed effects.

b. Same model, via GLS random effects.

c. Perform the Hausman test and evaluate the results.

3. Repeat #1 and #2 adding lpris (log of prison population per 100,000) to the fixed effects and random effects formulation. Do your judgments from the Hausman test results change? Why or why not?

4. Generate lagged values of gcriv and gcrip, the changes in the log crime rate variables. (Careful: this must be done for each state; see 'by'). Test OLS regression models in which gcriv = f(cag15_17, gpris, lgcrip) and gcrip = f(cag15_17, gpris, lgcriv). Comment on expected signs. What is being implied by the lagged variables' placement in these equations? Comment on their estimated coefficients. What does the constant term in these equations imply?

5.Reestimate the two OLS equations above using Zellner SURE (see sureg) with the corr and isure options. Comment on the SURE results versus the OLS results.