Chapter 2Are there patterns of state differences?Is there a pattern to Texas politics and policies?CorrelationsA technique for expressing relationships in quantitative termsThe degrees of inherent association, which exists between any two variables occurring simultaneously in the same universe. (Abraham N. Franzblau)Empirical Relationships in Scatterplots and CorrelationsMinimum strength thresholdAnything above 0.3 there is a relationship.Direction of RelationshipPositive when increasing one indicator increases the indicator. Slope goes up from left to right.Negative when you increase one indicator the other decreases.This doesn’t affect the strength of the relationship.Possible InterpretationsThis determines the cause and effect of the relationship – beyond just whether there is a relationship or not.POLS 207 1st Edition Lecture 4Outline of Last Lecture I. Expendituresa. Federal vs. Stateb. Texas vs. Other StatesOutline of Current Lecture II. Continued State ExpendituresA. Ranking tables available on lecture slidesIII. State Differences and RelationshipsIV. Graph dataa. Correlationsb. Empirical Relationships in Scatter plots and CorrelationsCurrent Lecture:- Mississippi and Louisiana are the poorest states. - Wyoming has a low poverty rate.- Homeless per 100,000 people – Oregon and Nevada have a high percentage of homeless people.- TANF benefits – in Texas you have to have a very low monthly income to gain these benefits – states such as Virginia and Michigan are fairly generous. Southern states as a whole are not very generous – due to low taxes meaning they receive less services and benefits.- High School Completion – Southern states have a low rate of high school completion.- Texas does better with college completion than high school completion. 25.9% of Texas students complete college.1 in 2 Asians have a degree.1 in 3 white people have a degree.17-18% African-Americans12% HispanicsViolent Crimes per 100,000 – States such as Louisiana, Florida, Nevada and Tennessee have a high rate of violent crime. Texas is fairly high but not as bad as those states. Low violent crime rates are states such as New Hampshire.Property crimes – Southern states have extremely high rates (except for Mississippi) – Texas is among those high states.Lower states are in the North East and Mid North (such as Maine, Idaho, Wyoming, the Dakotas and the Virginias)Texas has the most executions by far; 474 people since 1976.Life Expectancy is high in California, Arizona, Colorado, and New York etc. but low in many of theSouthern states.Low general expenditures are states such as Texas, Arizona, and Oklahoma etc. because they collect very little money from taxes and many of these states have a balanced budget in their Constitution.Chapter 2 Are there patterns of state differences? Is there a pattern to Texas politics and policies? Correlations A technique for expressing relationships in quantitative terms The degrees of inherent association, which exists between any two variables occurring simultaneously in the same universe. (Abraham N. Franzblau) Empirical Relationships in Scatterplots and Correlations Minimum strength threshold - Anything above 0.3 there is a relationship. Direction of Relationship - Positive when increasing one indicator increases the indicator. Slope goes up from left to right.- Negative when you increase one indicator the other decreases.- This doesn’t affect the strength of the relationship. Possible Interpretations- This determines the cause and effect of the relationship – beyond just whether thereis a relationship or