Assignment: Data Analysis

Part 1

This part of the assignment deals with the demand for university education in Nova Scotia.

First, read the following documents:

"Is Demand for University Education Shrinking Among Maritimers?"

"University Participation - Tables: Measures of Student Progress and Outcomes February 2012".

Then, do the following:

1) Define the following concepts explained in the documents:

-Home province participation;
-Overall participation;
-Maritime Participation (this concept refers to maritime participation of a province as defined in the "University Participation - Tables: Measures of Student Progress and Outcomes February 2012" document).

Note: remember that you must reference the definitions either by direct quotation or paraphrase (expressing the idea in your own words), which must be acknowledged using correct citation.

2) Using a) the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission (MPHEC) dataset "Enrolment aggregated by province of study, institution, registration status, program type, credential type, level of study, CIP group and province of residence" available through Open Data at the MPHEC website and b) Statistics Canada data on population available in the CANSIM database, table 051-0001, do the following:

a) create the chart: Full-Time Home Province Participation, Nova Scotia, 2005/06 - 2015/16;
b) create the chart: Full-Time Overall Participation, Nova Scotia, 2005/06 - 2015/16;
c) create the chart: Full-Time Maritime Participation, Nova Scotia, 2005/06 - 2015/16.
d) Using your knowledge of the determinants of individuals' human capital investments, discuss the factors that might explain the trend(s) observed in the charts (you may choose one of the charts to discuss or discuss all of them). Maximum 300 words.

Note: for each chart, you should create a chart title, axis titles, and a legend.

Part 2

Go to the Statistics Canada webpage "Complete list of Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program tables".

3) Using the data from Section E.3, create a chart "Average earnings, by age group and level of education, Canada, [indicate a year]". Creating the chart use:

-three education levels: a) high school diploma or equivalent; b) university certificate or diploma below bachelor level c) university certificate, diploma or degree at bachelor level or above;

- age categories from 20-24 to 55-59.

Note: you should create a chart title, axis titles, and a legend.

4) Using your knowledge of the human capital theory, discuss the factors that might explain earnings differences across age groups and across education levels.