The exercise for Data Task 1 involves replicating research results on Medieval Universities using datasets. Key tasks include reproducing figures and regression results from Cantoni and Yuchtman (2014), performing time series and using a Regression Discontinuity Design. The focus is on analyzing historical data on German universities and their impacts on market establishment.
The findings indicate a change in market establishment trends around 1386, influenced by the proximity to medieval universities in Germany. A placebo analysis conducted for Italy and England & Wales underlines the robustness of findings.
The second data task involves analyzing the wage impact of a discriminatory policy targeting black workers in the United States from 1913. The exercise uses methodologies like histogram visualization, descriptive statistics, difference-in-differences estimators, and regression analysis with fixed effects, to examine and compare salary distributions and calculate the policy's impact on wages. The task includes compiling a regression table to summarize findings.
The regression analysis with year and individual fixed effects indicate a 7.6% average decrease in wages for black workers relative to white workers due to the policy, significant at the 1% level.