CHAPTER 8

Qualitative Variables in Regression

Qualitative Data

There are numerous types of data, each with its own characteristics and nature. Qualitative data are information about characteristics of a population of interest that cannot be measured numerically. For example, the gender of workers is important in a study of wage earning differentials or comparisons of educational attainment of unemployed people. However, gender cannot be represented numerically; at least not in the same way as quantitative variables measured on interval or ratio scales. Other qualitative characteristics include race, eye color, city or state of residence, type of car one drives, kinds of food one purchases, and numerous other characteristics that cannot be presented ...

Get Regression for Economics, Second Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.