17.871Spring 2008Group ProjectsAssignment summaryWorking with your assigned group, answer the question posed to you. You will give a 10-minute presentation on your work on March 10. Your group will also turn in a 10-pagewritten report on your project on Friday, March 13. (Please e-mail a copy to me by 5:00 pm. in one of the following formats: doc or pdf.) The report should be in the form of a (mini) term paper meaning, among other things, that it should follow the format described by Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. The paper should do the following:1. State, or re-state, the question, and discuss to whom the question is important and why.2. Review any relevant literature you can find, either in journals, press accounts, or books.3. Describe your method, including, how you measured the variables of interest (dependent and independent variables) and where you gathered the data.4. Summarize your findings, using the appropriate figures and tables.The 10-page limit includes tables, figures, and bibliography. Data requirementsThe data set you create must have least 30 cases and at least three explanatory variables.Statement about collaborationYou are encouraged to seek and extend as much help as you can, both within and betweengroups. I expect you to be meticulous in citing the written work of others that you use.GradingI will assign a letter grade to each group's project. That will be the grade you receive, plus or minus an adjustment that will be determined as follows: I will ask each member of the group to indicate the relative amount of effort each person contributed to the successful completion of the project. If someone in the group stands out as being a conspicuous over-contributor or under-contributor to the group effort, that person's letter grade will be adjusted upward or downward as appropriate.Project 1: Unfamiliar names and congressional electionsNames: Carlton-Foss, Margaret; Lin-Greenberg, Erik; Petraeus, StephenQuestion: In House elections, many voters know nothing other than the candidates’ names and party affiliations. Does having a less familiar name hurt candidates in House elections?Variables- Data on the frequency of names in the United States is available through the Census Bureau, e.g., http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/names_files.html.- Incumbency. Incumbents tend to fare better than do challengers so you may consider controlling for incumbency.- District partisanship. Districts tend to be stable in their partisanship, which researchers often measure with the average tendency to vote Democratic in recent presidential elections.- Ethnicity. You may wish to control for or exclude races where one or both candidates have “ethnic” last names.Data sources- ICPSR has biographical data on candidates for house elections.- I will give you the House election dataProject 2: Cabinet qualityNames: Fogg, Erik; Chan, Gabe; Rios, MarcQuestion: What explains the quality of Cabinet appointments in the US? Possible explanations- Polarization. Ever since George Washington's second term in office, presidents have allegedly struggled to find good Cabinet members when politics becomes polarized (see for instance, Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton). During such periods, good candidates for Cabinet posts allegedly refuse the nomination to avoid the partisan fray. Is this allegation true? Does polarization hurt Cabinet quality?- Presidential popularity. When presidents are popular, they may more easily recruit high-quality individuals to their cabinets. Although presidential approval data is only available post-World War II, data on the economy is available for a much longer period, and may provide a reasonable substitute for presidential approval.- Unified versus divided government. Presidents may also be able to recruit high-quality individuals when the committees conducting the confirmation hearings arechaired by Senators of the same party as the president.- General levels of education, the size of government, and population size. The poolof high-quality candidates for Cabinet positions has probably changed over time as education levels have increased, government has grown in size, and the population has increased.Data sources- Wikipedia has biographies of US Cabinet members.- PollingReport.com has data on presidential approval.- Data on polarization in Congress is available from numerous sources, including http://voteview.com/dwnl.htm.Comments/hintsThe trick here is to construct a reasonable measure of Cabinet quality. You will have determine what characteristics make for a high-quality Cabinet appointment,such as education and government experience, devise a coding scheme, enter the data, and average the indicators to generate a measure of quality.Project 3: Government corruption and press freedomNames: Frazier, Jonathan; Calluzzo, Nick; Lim, KevinQuestion: Why are some governments more corrupt than are others?Possible explanations- Free Press. More snooping reporters may mean less corruption.- Level and length of democracy. Democracy may reduce corruption by allowing voters to reject corrupt politicians.- Colonialism. Some scholars have argued that the British established institutions intheir colonies that lower corruption.- Income. Poverty probably leads government officials to take a more bribes.Data sources- Transparency International collects data on corruption.- Przeworski et al, Democracy and Development. Book with detailed information about regime types for 141 countries. - World Bank collects data on newspaper circulation.- International Federation of Newspaper Publishers also collects data on newspaper circulation, which they publish in World Press Trends.Comments/hintsAlthough researchers have investigated the determinants of corruption, the role of the press is under explored. You will need to determine the best approach to measuring corruption and press freedom. You might also attempt to look at overtime change, such as comparing early 90s with more recent corruption levels. You should also consider what factors might increase the effect of press freedom on corruption.Project 4: Women in ParliamentsNames: Alba, Ernest; Abdul-Razzak, Nour; Scott, SaraQuestion: What explains the variation in women's representation in parliaments around the world? Possible explanations- Duration of democracy. Young democracies struggle with the most basic implementation of democratic rules, therefore these countries might