September 21, 2009

What's new at the data blog

Detailed info on my for-purchase data blog / e-book in progress is on the right sidebar, along with a full table of contents to see what you're getting. Purchases can be made with the PayPal button at the top. ($10 for 20 longer articles, with lots of shorter ones thrown in free.) Here's what's come out since the last update:

10. What predicts income dissatisfaction? I use GSS data to test the idea that the higher your status, the more dissatisfied you'll be with your income. For example, it could be that people's expectations of their livelihood rise faster than their income. I show how income dissatisfaction changes according to income, class identification, job prestige, intelligence, education, age, race, and sex. Surprisingly, the sex difference is the largest of all.

11. How are religiosity and teen pregnancy related? States with higher religiosity scores also have higher teen pregnancy rates, but does this pattern reflect individual-level patterns or not? I use the GSS to see whether age at first birth predicts greater religiosity -- that is, if the state-level pattern is just an individual-level pattern writ large -- or if teen mothers are less religious, so that their state's greater religiosity is just a response to their reckless behavior. Using three measures of religious beliefs and three measures of religious practice, I find evidence of both forces at work.

2 comments:

  1. Idea for post.

    Countries that have national public health care schemes such as the UK and Canada spend some x% of their GDP on health care to provide for 100% of their population.

    The United States has national public health care for the poor and elderly, Medicaid and Medicare. The US spends some x% of GDP to cover some x% of the population.

    Compare the cost ratios.

    Just for illustration, not real numbers:

    If it costs the UK 6% of GDP to cover 100%, then

    why does it cost the US 4% to cover only 25%?

    Just food for thought.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Regarding the relgiosity = teen pregnancy, I'd like to suggest a third data set be included: percentage of minority population.

    Mississippi, tops in religiosity and teen pregnancy, is also tops in percentage of the population who are African American (37% of the population).

    New Mexico, second in teen pregnancy, is first in percentage of Hispanic population (at 45%) and second in Native American (9.5%)

    Texas, third in teen pregnancy, is second in hispanic population (35%), and 11% African American.

    etc.

    In fact, I bet (without looking at it closely) that teen pregnancy correlates much more closely with percentage minority population than it does with religiosity.

    ReplyDelete

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