Identifying a management problem and designing an appropriate business research strategy is critical for success in business, but this is only the start of the problem.  This assignment requires the participant to perform quantitative research to investigate a data set.

Each team member is required to make specific contributions in undertaking the required tasks of this assignment.  However it is the responsibility of the team as whole to ensure that the arguments and format of the report are cohesive reflecting the collective effort of the team.  To achieve this outcome, it will be necessary for the team members to meet frequently to discuss the analysis and presentation. 

The purpose of this assignment is to gain experience exploring a data set and applying the statistical techniques that have been learned during the lecture sessions.

The Data

The data set is from the World Bank and contains the following variables:

• Life expectancy at birth, total (years)
• CO₂ emissions (metric tons per capita)
• Health expenditure per capita (current US$)
• GDP growth (annual %)
• Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people)

The Tasks

1. Create appropriate plots of the data and comment on the general trends present.
2. Calculate the mean, median, standard deviation for each variable and comment.
3. Perform correlation analysis of each variable with Life expectancy. Comment on the results and the implied relationships, i.e. just because two variables are highly correlated does this imply a cause and effect relationship? Discuss.

The Report

• Present concise arguments supported by your analysis
• Draw conclusions justified by the arguments and evidence
• Begin the report with an executive summary and include any detailed analysis, tables and charts in appendices
• Your report should cover the following as a minimum: 
• Executive summary
• Each of the tasks listed above.
• Major conclusions from your analysis and the implications of these conclusions
• Any limitations of the analysis

Statistical Analysis Software

This data analysis should be preformed using statistical analysis software. All of the analysis required can be preformed using Excel, but other statistical packages are welcome to be used (but I may not be able to provide technical support). The text for the second section of the course gives detailed descriptions’ of how to perform the required analysis.