Question

#$Last, the researchers hopes to understand how GDP influence birth rates. They theorize that perhaps countries with higher gross domestic product will invest more in women’s schooling. If more women know how to read, they hypothesize, then those women may have fewer children (due to better birth control knowledge, higher career aspirations, etc). The researchers add a variable measuring the percentage of women who can read to the regression equation. The results are presented in Equation 3 of Table 1.

Question 1. What is the reason the researchers are adding the variable measuring female literacy?

Question 2. Clearly explain which elaboration strategy the researchers are using when they add the new variable. You may draw a picture on your worksheet. You should not reference any numbers from the equation in answering this question

Only look at equation 3!!

Table 1. OLS Regression Coefficients Representing Influence of Economic Output (GDP) and Control Variables on Total Fertility Rate

	Equation 1	Equation 2	Equation 3
Gross Domestic Product per Capita (x 1000)	-.033 (.000)	-.033 (.000)	-.007 (.141)
Population size		-.0000000784 (.378)	-.0000000773 (.063)
Percentage of Women who can Read			-.043 (.000)
Y-intercept (Constant)	3.36	3.39	6.47
R2	.207	.213	.657

(Significance level in parentheses)

Answer 1

Question 1. What is the reason the researchers are adding the variable measuring female literacy?

Ans: If the females are literate they have better birth control knowledge, higher career aspirations, etc. So, the female literacy rate may be a factor for controlling the birth rate. Hence, the researchers are adding the variable measuring female literacy. From the given result of the analysis, the Percentage of Women who can Read has a significant effect on the birth rate at 0.05 significance level. Also, the R2 value is increased by 44.4% when adding the Percentage of Women who can Read as an independent variable in the model.

Question 2. Clearly explain which elaboration strategy the researchers are using when they add the new variable. You may draw a picture on your worksheet. You should not reference any numbers from the equation in answering this question.

Ans: Adding the new variable on the independent variable of a regression model is dependent on the causal effect of the additional independent variable on the dependent variable. If the additional independent variable has significant at the model o dependent variable at the given level of significance, we will add this independent variable in the model.