Statistical Modeling

Dr. Courtney Brown

Assignment #1

In this assignment, you will analyze the on-year and off-year pattern of political participation in voting during U.S. congressional elections. In on-year elections (every four years), the congressional elections coincide with the presidential elections. More people go out to vote in those elections. In the off-year elections (the elections between the on-year elections), fewer people vote. Thus, congressional electoral mobilization as a proportion of the total eligible voters is greater in on-year elections than in off-year elections due to the structure of the electoral calendar.

You need to do this assignment in two parts. First you need to create a SAS data set, and then you need to analyze the data. You will then conduct your analysis on the data for the years from 1950 to 1970. Use this SAS code to create your data set. Just copy and paste the file into your SAS program editor, change one line, and run it. USE NETSCAPE OR INTERNET EXPLORER TO CUT AND PASTE THE SAS CODE INTO YOUR SAS EDITOR.

You are to look at measures of central tendency and variation for on-year and off-year congressional mobilization between the years 1950 and 1970, and compare these numbers for the same variables between 1970 and 1988.

Below is the SAS code that will do the analysis of the data. Cut and paste everything below this line into your SAS editor.

libname windata 'c:\';
GOPTIONS lfactor=10 hsize=6 in vsize=6 in horigin=1 in vorigin=1 in;
options nocenter;
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* CLASS, NOTE THAT IF YOU BEGIN A LINE WITH AN ASTERISK *
* THEN YOU CAN PUT NOTES IN YOUR PROGRAM FILES. THIS IS
* LIKE A COMMENT CARD IN SPSS. HOWEVER, REMEMBER
* TO EVENTUALLY PUT A FINAL SEMICOLON AT THE END OF YOUR COMMENTS.;
***********************************************************;
* NOTE THAT I INDENT SOME STATEMENTS. THIS
* IS JUST FOR NEATNESS.;
***********************************************************;
* COPYRIGHT (c) Courtney Brown 2004, All Rights Reserved;
* Permission granted to use this file and computer code for any nonprofit and
* educational purposes, including classroom instruction.
* No further permission required.
* Please cite source as "From www.courtneybrown.com";
***********************************************************;
DATA USPARTY;SET windata.USPARTY;
DATA ON5070;SET USPARTY;
IF ((YEAR EQ 1952) OR (YEAR EQ 1956) OR (YEAR EQ 1960) OR (YEAR EQ 1964) OR (YEAR EQ 1968));
DATA ON7288;SET USPARTY;
IF ((YEAR EQ 1972) OR (YEAR EQ 1976) OR (YEAR EQ 1980) OR (YEAR EQ 1984) OR (YEAR EQ 1988));
DATA OFF5070;SET USPARTY;
IF ((YEAR EQ 1950) OR (YEAR EQ 1954) OR (YEAR EQ 1958) OR (YEAR EQ 1962) OR (YEAR EQ 1966) OR (YEAR EQ 1970));
DATA OFF7486;SET USPARTY;
IF ((YEAR EQ 1974) OR (YEAR EQ 1978) OR (YEAR EQ 1982) OR (YEAR EQ 1986));
PROC MEANS DATA=ON5070;
PROC MEANS DATA=ON7288;
PROC MEANS DATA=OFF5070;
PROC MEANS DATA=OFF7486;
PROC UNIVARIATE DATA=ON5070;
run;
quit;