This work is a report focused on the statistical interpretation of an article that suggests that drinking has the effect of increasing the economic benefits of the people who engage in it. As such, the paper answers five questions that interpret the quality of the results and the deductions of the findings. First, the paper will explore that type of regression model the researchers of the work used before proceeding to analyze the relationships that the researchers chose during their study.
Next, the work will identify any disadvantages in the use of the regression method, which could have affected the quality of the results. The fourth element of the work determines whether or not the researchers should have considered additional independent variables. Lastly, the work reconsiders the validity of the conclusions made using data from the findings.
First, the researchers employed the Jackknife Regression Model, which functions as a method of generalized data clustering and reduction. The method is particularly useful when the model of the study involves correlated independent variables and dummy variables. For this case, the model of the study focused on the creation of a variable that indicated the frequency at which the participants of the research visited bars or any other places from where they could drink.
One of the deductions that the researchers developed was an equation that related the long of people’s incomes and the levels of both social and nonsocial drinking without categorically identifying the demographic characteristics. The second study also used the same regression model because it used dummy variables to investigate the relationship between social drinking and the levels of income.
The researchers examined the relationship between drinking of alcoholic drinks and the levels of income. There was first the need for developing a hypothesized approach out of the relationship between the frequencies of visiting the pubs. The rationale for the study was to establish the correlation between any type of drinking; social or non-social and the income levels of the participants. In another experiment, the researchers narrowed down on investigating the effects of social drinking on the levels of income especially after establishing the correlation from the first study. In the latter case, they used one depended variable; social drinking, and investigated its relationship with dummy variables.
The use of the Jackknife Regression Model in a research of such nature had a number of disadvantages. For instance, the use of dummy variables for the analysis model did not give an appropriate picture of the research especially in the use of the study to investigate human characteristics. There are as many variables within human populations as possible, at least enough to suit all types of researchers. Therefore, making conclusions based on a narrow segment of the independent variables makes the validity of the findings low.
Another disadvantage of the study is the fact that it did not cover a considerably large enough size of data to make a generalized conclusion about the entire human population. The researchers ignored the fact that the demographics and associated characteristics differ from place to place.
The study could have delivered better results had those who conducted it considered a wide range of independent variables. For instance, drinking is a habit that varies from culture to culture, from one geographic region to another, which makes the findings of the study to have little validity. Therefore, the regression model should have utilized more characteristics of the populations such as their gender, their religious orientation, the levels of tolerance to alcohol, and other aspects. It is noteworthy that such factors affect that levels of drinking among individuals. The use dummy variables make the findings and subsequent conclusion of the study less valid.
In conclusion, the deductions of the result could have been better and more valid should the researchers have incorporated a considerably larger size of the independent variables. The interpretation of the results would have had a categorical consideration for the variables within the populations such as gender, age, religious affiliations among others. Therefore, such a reasoning is to mean that the regression model adopted by the researchers does not give enough findings that would direct them to conclude that people who drink will always earn more than their non-drinking counterparts.
The conclusion would have been more realistic had the study included age brackets, the levels of drinking, and the genders of participants among other aspects. Considerably people who drink excessively cannot earn more than those who abstain because of the health effects of overdrinking. As well, people who drink socially, but are not of the working class, such as students cannot earn more than those who drink to the same levels and work. Additionally, there is little logic in the conclusion upon the consideration that some religions and cultures do not permit the use of alcohol. Therefore, as much as the empirical data of the research could give the conclusion deduced by the researchers, its validity is little.