POS 138 Quantitative Reasoning in Political Science

HW8: Cross National Health Care Scatterplot

DUE: 

read: JPDA, pp72-74

• To do the scatterplot, you need two variables, one independent and one dependent.
• Select the data from the OECD Health Data 2009 database:
  • First, click here to get your ISU subscription confirmed
  • Then click on "Go" and then the second "deliver date" button
  • Select the variables from the lists (note: several variables may be selected\or deleted as you go along)
  • Select the 30 OECD countries from the "Results" panel (you may want to delete some of the poorer countries later)
  • select the three most recent years (use the earliest year for which there is the most complete data)
  • click on "show result" (note: your pop-up blocker should be off).
  • download the Excel file

Possible independent variable::

health care spending (%GDP; or per capita in US dollars PPP)
physician\dentist density
average length of stay in acute care
% population obese or overweight
calories per capita per day
alcohol consumption
sugar consumption

Possible dependent variables:

infant mortality rate
life expectancy
low birthweight
years of life lost due to diabetes
deaths due to road injuries
tooth decay at age 12

To add labels to your chart:

• Use these OECD country abbreviations
• save and close all excel files
• right click and download this file to your desktop
• go to your desktop and open the charttools file.
• then open your original Excel file

Construct the scatterplot, save the excel file to Word and write a short summary of the data and what the chart tells you.