« Confused by machines, or spooked by the machine-makers | Main | What is Mr. Pruitt saying? »

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Ken

Most of the countries that are excluded have economies based very much on natural resources, specifically oil, meaning no need to interact with the rest of the world for the rest of the economy. Additionally in the oil-rich nations much of the real work is done by guest workers. The impression is that they are low paid Pakistani labourers, but they are also often IT, engineers and oil workers.

The need for additional predictors raises an important difficulty. There are less than a 100 countries with good data on most economic variables. I think in the graphs there are 40-50. The only way to fit models is to choose a small number of predictors. Choice of predictors can obtain almost every result desired.

It is a similar result with comparison of US states. With only 50 states trying to build models of how, for example, the death penalty affects crime rates is just not going to work well. Doesn't stop social scientists and economists doing things like this.

The comments to this entry are closed.

Get new posts by email:
Kaiser Fung. Business analytics and data visualization expert. Author and Speaker.
Visit my website. Follow my Twitter. See my articles at Daily Beast, 538, HBR, Wired.

See my Youtube and Flickr.

Search3

  • only in Big Data
Numbers Rule Your World:
Amazon - Barnes&Noble

Numbersense:
Amazon - Barnes&Noble

Junk Charts Blog



Link to junkcharts

Graphics design by Amanda Lee

Next Events

Jan: 10 NYPL Data Science Careers Talk, New York, NY

Past Events

Aug: 15 NYPL Analytics Resume Review Workshop, New York, NY

Apr: 2 Data Visualization Seminar, Pasadena, CA

Mar: 30 ASA DataFest, New York, NY

See more here

Principal Analytics Prep



Link to Principal Analytics Prep

Community