1. Introduction:
Policy makers are concerned over homelessness and the impact this has on individuals, families and the community. There are many factors that determine the extent of homelessness and these factors may be different for different countries, states, or local council areas. The dataset provided includes a small selection of variables thought to affect homelessness in the United States.

2. Assignment requirements:
For this assignment, you are required to think about the determinants of homelessness, estimate at least 2 different econometric models to understand some of the covariates of homelessness, and write up these results in a short report.

Using graphical techniques, descriptive/summary statistics, and econometric analysis, please analyze the determinants of homelessness. Your analysis should also include confidence intervals and hypothesis testing.

Write a short report (strictly 400-500 words) interpreting and summarizing your findings and present your results in a professional way, paying attention to correct use of language and grammar. You are required to submit your report in BOTH Word and PDF via MyUni, including all your graphs, charts, and output embedded within your report. Please do not upload multiple files.

In the published paper:
THE ECONOMICS OF HOMELESSNESS: THE EVIDENCE FROM NORTH AMERICA, (2001), Quigley J.M. and Steven Raphael, European Journal of Housing Policy 1(3), 2001, 323–336,
the authors discuss the issues of homelessness in North America and estimate several econometric models to help our understanding of the economic determinants of homelessness.
As a starting point, I would like you to read the paper and use it as motivation for your own analysis of the issue, using the cross sectional dataset homeless1.dta.
I expect you to also research the topic a little by finding more recent papers on homelessness.
Some useful information and statistics on homelessness in Australia can be found online. While the data you have to use for the assignment is from the USA, it may still be useful in trying to understand the nature and determinants of homelessness in Australia.
3. Structure:
I expect this short assignment to be structured in a similar way to research papers such as the one by Quigley and Raphael above, although nowhere near as long. Important elements to include are the following:
1. Introduction and small literature survey (2-3 relevant papers should be discussed briefly.
2. Summary statistics and charts (eg scatter plots, line charts, histograms).
3. Econometric analysis – estimate a few different models using simple regression and present the results in a table.
4. Discuss the results and the implications of your results.
5. Conclusion.
6. References.
4. Data set variable description:

The homeless1.dta dataset contains the following variables:

Variable Label
hmlss       natural log of the homelessness rate
vac          natural log of the rental vacancy rate
grossr       natural log of median gross rent
mdhhinc       natural log of Median Household income
rntincrt    natural log of the Rent Income ratio
unemploy    natural log of the unemployment rate
mhosp       change in the mental hospital population
prison       change in the prison population
jantemp       natural log of median January temeprature
ssipop       natural log of supplemental social security income recipients
pop          natural log of total population

1. Introduction: Policy makers are concerned over homelessness and...