The Administration of Your University/college Is Thinking About Implementing a Policy

question 29

Essay

The administration of your university/college is thinking about implementing a policy of
coed floors only in dormitories.Currently there are only single gender floors.One reason
behind such a policy might be to generate an atmosphere of better "understanding"
between the sexes.The Dean of Students (DoS)has decided to investigate if such a
behavior results in more "togetherness" by attempting to find the determinants of the
gender composition at the dinner table in your main dining hall, and in that of a
neighboring university, which only allows for coed floors in their dorms.The survey
includes 176 students, 63 from your university/college, and 113 from a neighboring
institution.
The Dean's first problem is how to define gender composition.To begin with, the survey
excludes single persons' tables, since the study is to focus on group behavior.The Dean
also eliminates sports teams from the analysis, since a large number of single-gender
students will sit at the same table.Finally, the Dean decides to only analyze tables with
three or more students, since she worries about "couples" distorting the results.The Dean
finally settles for the following specification of the dependent variable: GenderComp $= \mid ( 50 \% - \%$ of Male Students at Table $) \mid$
Where " $| Z |$ " stands for absolute value of $Z$ . The variable can take on values from zero to fifty. After considering various explanatory variables, the Dean settles for an initial list of
eight, and estimates the following relationship, using heteroskedasticity-robust standard
errors (this Dean obviously has taken an econometrics course earlier in her career and/or
has an able research assistant): $$\begin{array}{l}\begin{array} { l } \widehat { \text { GenderComp } } = 30.90 - 3.78 \times \text { Size } - 8.81 \times \text { DCoed } + 2.28 \times \text { DFemme } + 2.06 \times \text { DRoommate } \\\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad (7.73) (0.63) \quad\quad\quad\quad(2.66)\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad(2.42)\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad(2.39) \\\\\end{array}\\- 0.17 \times \text { DAthlete } + 1.49 \times \text { DCons } - 0.81 \text { SAT } + 1.74 \times \text { SibOther, } \mathrm { R } ^ { 2 } = 0.24 , \mathrm { SER } = 15.50\\(3.23)\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad\quad \quad(1.10) \quad\quad\quad\quad\quad(1.20) \quad\quad\quad(1.43)\end{array}$$ where Size is the number of persons at the table minus 3, DCoed is a binary variable,
which takes on the value of 1 if you live on a coed floor, DFemme is a binary variable,
which is 1 for females and zero otherwise, DRoommate is a binary variable which equals
1 if the person at the table has a roommate and is zero otherwise, DAthlete is a binary
variable which is 1 if the person at the table is a member of an athletic varsity team,
DCons is a variable which measures the political tendency of the person at the table on a
seven-point scale, ranging from 1 being "liberal" to 7 being "conservative," SAT is the
SAT score of the person at the table measured on a seven-point scale, ranging from 1 for
the category "900-1000" to 7 for the category "1510 and above," and increasing by one
for 100 point increases, and SibOther is the number of siblings from the opposite gender
in the family the person at the table grew up with.
(a)Indicate which of the coefficients are statistically significant.

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Definitions:

Materials Price Variance

The difference between the actual cost of direct materials and the standard cost, multiplied by the actual quantity of materials used.

April

The fourth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

Variable Overhead Efficiency Variance

The difference between actual variable overhead based on the hours worked and the standard variable overhead for the same activity level.

July

The month that is positioned seventh in the Gregorian calendar year.