Income Inequality 2

Question 1

Some organisations focus on…

Answer 1

some organisations focus on outcome and not causation

Question 2

Example

Answer 2

one of the metrics in world university rankings is number of papers published in the top 25 journals; to improve our ranking RMIT directed staff to only publish in the top 25 ranked journals; result = greater percentage in top 25 journals but less overall publications hence no increase in University ranking (problem = RMIT does not provide adequate resources to produce quality research and papers that would get accepted into these prestigious journals)

Question 3

Some Governments/organisations focus on

Answer 3

economics/profits and not social indicators or costs

Question 4

Example 1

Answer 4

Victorian government legalised community gambling [casinos and poker machines] to raise taxes/revenue, To entice private operators, few regulations, however knew from interstate and overseas research that there would be significant negative impact on community (gambling addiction and related crime, poverty and homelessness) and chose not to put in early regulations to avoid social costs

Question 5

Example 2

Answer 5

Federal government removed $1.2 billion out of a budget of $23 billion in aged care but failed to insist on staff qualifications and staffing ratios and failed to ensure service quality

Question 6

Big data aims/goals

Answer 6

description; causation; prediction

Question 7

Description

Answer 7

collects information on measures of central tendency [means, medians, modes] and variance and range

Question 8

Example description

Answer 8

which nations have the highest income inequality within their population

Question 9

Causation

Answer 9

collects correlations and infers causation; note experimental causation requires control over allocation of participants into

Question 10

Example causation

Answer 10

there is a correlation between national income inequality and nation’s incidence of mental health but causation hasn’t been determined

Question 11

Prediction

Answer 11

whatever the causation, the ultimate goal is to predict future outcomes, that is, if one variable is known, then determine the probability of predicting another [outcome] variable

Question 12

Example prediction

Answer 12

knowing a nation’s income inequality allows social scientists to predict their level of physical and mental health

Question 13

Poverty is association with…

Answer 13

poverty is associated with poor health outcomes

Question 14

4 major explanations

Answer 14

methodology; natural selection; behavioural; structural

Question 15

Methodology

Answer 15

biased sampling distorts figures [for example, income falls when people become ill]