Description

The country of Ruritania has low rates of female labour force participation. One of the
suggested explanations for this is that discrimination in the labour market has led to
the existence of a gender pay gap that discourages women from entering the labour
market. The government of Ruritania would therefore like an analysis of whether
gender has a causal effect on wages.
Download the dataset corresponding to your student identification number. It consists
of information on 1,000 individuals for 2020 and includes information on earnings,
gender, experience, age, education and location. Variable descriptions are provided
below. Each of you has a different sample to analyse.
Using appropriate methods that you have learned in this module, evaluate the effect
of gender on wages.

Variable descriptions
Variable Description
individual_id Individual identification number
earnings Annual earnings (Ruritanian pounds) in 2020
gender =1 if individual is female, =0 otherwise
experience Years of work experience at start of 2020
age Age (in years)
education Years of education at start of 2020
city =1 if individual is located in city, =0 otherwise
Overall word limit: 1,500 words

2

Assignments should be typed, using 1.5 spacing and an easy-to-read 12-point font.
Assignments and dissertations/business projects must not exceed the word count
indicated in the module handbook/assessment brief.
The word count should:
§ Include all the text, including title, preface, introduction, in-text citations, quotations,
footnotes and any other items not specifically excluded below.
§ Exclude diagrams, tables (including tables/lists of contents and figures), equations,
executive summary/abstract, acknowledgements, declaration, bibliography/list of
references and appendices. However, it is not appropriate to use diagrams or
tables merely as a way of circumventing the word limit. If a student uses a table or
figure as a means of presenting his/her own words, then this is included in the word
count.

MARKING GUIDELINES

Performance in the summative assessment for this module is judged against the
following criteria:
• Relevance to question(s)
• Organisation, structure and presentation
• Depth of understanding
• Analysis and discussion
• Use of sources and referencing
• Overall conclusions