13. interpretation that is placed on those findings. The ability to
draw sensible conclusions using appropriate methods of analysis
is as important as getting the 'right' numerical answers.
Administration
The group project counts for 30% of the total module mark. It
will be organised as follows:
(i) All students are asked to sign up for a group using the Group
project lists available on Moodle by 13th of February 2015.
Groups should be a minimum of 4 people and a maximum of 8.
If you do not sign up for a group by February 13th, you risk
being awarded a mark of zero for the project.
Here are some suggested ways of forming and signing up a
group:
· Form a group of at least 4 individuals and no more than 8, find
a free group slot on Moodle and sign up to it. If you have been
unable to gather the minimum number of people, you can use
the module Forum on Moodle to invite people to join your
group.
· If you have not been able to form a group, you can approach a
group that has spare spaces. Please ensure you get their
agreement before signing up, as existing group members have
the right to complain about unknown sign-ups. The module
convenor will follow up these complaints and take appropriate
actions.
· Distribute the responsibility for each question amongst
yourselves. It helps to elect a leader who will oversee the
practical aspects of co-ordinating and putting together various
bits of the assignment. Note that the lack of co-ordination of
work efforts was a problem in last year's coursework.
(ii) Make a note of the names of other members in your group.
You are responsible for making contact with each other and you
should ensure that your group meets as soon as possible to start
14. work on the project.
(iii) If group membership details change after February 13th,
please inform the module convenor by email immediately.
(iv) If you are experiencing problems in relation to the
organisation of your group, please inform the module convenor
(by email) as soon as possible and no later than 13th February.
(v) In the event of (iv) arising, the convenor will in the first
instance attempt to put you and any other individual (s) in a
similar situation in a group of appropriate size. In the unlikely
case of the convenor failing to gather a group of the minimum
stated size, then individuals in the latter group will have to
complete a different group project.
(vi) If, through no fault of your own and subsequent to signing
up, a given group breaks up after the signing-up deadline, and
you are unable to form a new group, please inform the module
convenor immediately. In this case, alternative arrangements as
per (v) will apply, but these will only cover problems which
were outside the individual's control.
(vii) Note that students are not allowed to substitute and submit
an individual piece of work for the group project unless decided
and agreed to by the module convenor.
(viii) All members of a group will be awarded the same mark
unless your project is accompanied by a signed statement from
the whole group requesting a different mark distribution. This
might be the case, for instance if all other members of the group
feel one/some member(s) have not contributed enough or at all
to the work. If you are failing to get a response after several
attempts to contact a group member to contribute to the project,
subsequent to which there are disagreements about the equal
distribution of marks, ensure you keep a copy of all email
correspondence sent to that member. Prior to making a request
for a different mark distribution, students must report any
problems with their group to the convenor so that she can
reasonably try to deal with the problem. Please note that no case
for an unequal allocation of marks from any group member can
be considered once a project has been marked. Note that group
15. project marks are final once they have been signed off by the
external examiner
(ix) Notwithstanding the above, unforeseen situations may arise
with the group project that the module convenor will deal with
as circumstances dictate and in a manner deemed most
appropriate.
(x) The project (no more than 2500 words) is to be word
processed and is due for submission no later than 14:00 on
27.04.2015. It must be handed in at the Undergraduate Office of
the Business School. Late submissions will be subject to normal
penalties.
16. Project Questions
You have been engaged by the UK Department for Business
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), formerly known as
the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), to prepare an
analysis of the various aspects of firms in the manufacturing
sector operating in England, Scotland and Wales. BERR is
particularly interested in issues related to ownership and
exporting. You have been provided with data on a sample of 500
firms. These firms have been classified into three types:
foreign-owned firms, domestic owned exporting firms and
domestic-owned non-exporting firms. The data set also provides
information on such characteristics as the number of employees,
firm size, hourly wage rates, sales turnover, profits, profit
margins, sector of activity and labour productivity. Labour
productivity is measured as the value of output per employee.
You are asked to address the following issues:
1) Analyse the key features of the sample in terms of age,
profitability, industry, location, size and type of firm. (Use
summary statistics, graphs and/or frequency distributions as
appropriate and comment on the shape of the distributions
where relevant).
[25 marks]
2) Using cross tabulation, compare the size distributions of
domestic-owned exporting and domestic owned non-exporting
firms. Test whether there is a relationship between firm size and
whether domestic-owned firms export or not. Perform the same
test to verify whether a relationship exists between location and
whether domestic-owned firms export or not.
[25 marks]
17. 3) Calculate the 95% confidence intervals for profit margin for
each type of firm. Test the hypothesis that there is a difference
in the profit margins between foreign-owned and domestic-
owned firms.
[25 marks]
4) BERR is interested in knowing the extent to which the
number of employees, profit, labour productivity and ownership
affect the hourly wage rate. You are asked to run a regression of
WAGE on EMPLOYEE, PROFIT, LABPROD and FIRMTYPE.
Carefully note that since FIRMTYPE is a categorical variable
representing three categories, you need to create a suitable
dummy variable to capture ownership and include it in the
regression.
Comment on the findings from your regressions results. What
conclusions can you draw about the factors which affect wage
rates?
(Note: When commenting on the results obtained, you need to
explain how each of these variables can affect the wage rate,
clearly stating the hypotheses being tested. You also need to
assess the quality of the model from a statistical perspective)
[25 marks]
List of Variables in Excel File
The data were collected from a random sample of firms across
England, Scotland and Wales. A self completion questionnaire
was mailed to the sample of firms and the data you are provided
with are the responses that were received by the survey
deadline. There are different types of variables – some variables
are categorical or ordinal in which case, value labels are
provided. Otherwise, variables are ratio. For ratio variables the
numbers are exactly as presented in the data file. The sample
contains data on 500 firms but you should note that for some
firms, variables will be missing (usually indicated by a blank
cell in the Excel Spreadsheet). Most forms of analysis that you
18. undertake will accommodate missing values, but when you come
to undertake regression analysis, Excel can only process
observations where all the data is present – you will, therefore,
need to exclude those cases which have missing values from
your regression analysis. You should download a copy of the
spreadsheet onto disk – you will need to right-click on the link
and select ‘Save Target As…’ option as the file is read only.
Remember to keep back-ups of the analysis that you do in
Excel.
FIRMID: Identifier for the firm
LOCATION: Location of the firm
1 England
2 Scotland
3 Wales
INDUSTRY: Main business activity within manufacturing
1 Food products, beverages and tobacco
2 Textile and textile products
3 Leather and leather products
4 Wood and wood products
5 Pulp, paper and paper products, publishing and printing
6 Coke, refined petroleum products and nuclear fuel
7 Chemicals, chemical products and man-made fibres
8 Rubber and plastic products
9 Other non-metallic mineral products
10 Basic metal and fabricated metal products
11 Machinery and equipment not elsewhere classified
12 Electrical and optical equipment
13 Transport Equipment
14 Other
AGE: Age of the firm (years)
EMPLOYEE: Number of employees
19. WAGE: Hourly wage rate (£)
TURNOVER: Sales turnover (£)
PROFIT: Net profits (£)
PROFITMARG: Net profit as a percentage of sales turnover (%)
LABPROD Labour Productivity (£)
FIRMTYPE: Type of firm
1 Foreign-owned
2 Domestic-owned exporters
3 Domestic-owned non-exporters
SIZE: Size classification of the firm, based on number of
employees
1 Between 1 and up to 100 employees
2 Between 100 and up to 200 employees
3 Between 200 and up to 300 employees
4 Between 300 and up to 400 employees
5 Between 400 and up to 500 employees
6 Greater than 500 employees
1