Overview:

Each student is expected to complete a mapping project. In this project the student chooses      some economic variable that varies across locations in the US and is available publicly, e.g.,        average income by county. They then use statistical software (R, Python, Stata, or others) to       plot this variable on a map of the US. In addition, they write up to 400 words on a topic inspired by this map. For example, if you show average income you could write about income inequality across space and some of the reasons for income inequality across space that we have learnt     about or policy attempts to alleviate it. Students must hand in a pdf with the map and write up  and their code that constructs the map. Our TA Jinhyeon Han Chen will hold a session on how    to use mapping software and be generally available to provide guidance on this project. A           separate guide on the Mapping Project with substantially more detail is available on Canvas.

Requirements:

The final mapping project needs to have the following ingredients:

1.   About 200 words that explain which variable you choose and why. We are looking for     evidence that you thought about what may be interesting to look at and can explain       your reasoning well. A bad motivation: “I find wages interesting and so I decided to         graph wages across counties.” A great motivation “I noticed that more rural areas in the US seem to have lower incomes. I read some articles about rural poverty that suggest     one of the reason is the lack of employers in those regions. So I choose to look at the      number of establishments per capita in each county.”

2.   A description of your variable and the data you use as well as some summary statistics of it (this part is basically what you submitted as mapping project proposal).

3.   A map of your variable of choice. I will host a session on Friday May 13 showing how to  use Stata to make a map. You can download stata for free here: https://ucsdcloud-          my.sharepoint.com/personal/msarkhoush_ucsd_edu/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2 Fpersonal%2Fmsarkhoush_ucsd_edu%2FDocuments%2FSTATA%2FSTATA-SE-17&ga=1

4.   About 200 words describing what you see on the map and how it relates to your                motivation. A bad description: “Wages differ widely across counties” . A great                      description: “There are less establishments per capita in the American heartland than on the urbanized coasts. The rust belt areas is another are with few establishments per         capita. [ …] . Overall my findings confirm what I read in articles: lack of employment           opportunities could be one of the reasons why rural regions tend to have lower wages.”

Step-by-step Guide:

1.   Think about which variable and spatial resolution you find interesting.

2.   Write down your motivation for the variable

3.   Download the data from nhgis.org, describe it, and compute summary statistics