Page | 1
C31RM: Research Methods, 2020 – 2021.
COURSEWORK: QUANTITATIVE ELEMENT (60%)
The Research Methods course assessment for the quantitative element accounts for
60% of the course grade and is based on an individual empirical project. This empirical
project consists of two parts:
Part I requires estimation of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models and
interpretation of the results;
Part II is a set of tests for Weak Form Efficiency and their interpretations.
These two empirical topics require understanding of material covered in the
Quantitative lectures and tutorials. You will also need to use SPSS for the tasks
required for this project. Further details about the write up and presentation of this
individual project are at the end of this document.
You are required to submit your report on Wednesday 31st March, 2021 at 12.00
Edinburgh time (15.00 Dubai local time).
Part I: Regression Analysis
The main objective of this component of the individual project is to 1) run the regression
using OLS and 2) to write up a concise report, discussing and analyzing your results,
based on suitable results tables and graphs.
Step 1: Obtain the Data: The data is available in the Assessments tab on the course
Vision page under the file name ‘CEO Data’
Step 2: You are required to run the following regression model using OLS:
= + 1 + 2 + 3σi + 4 + 5
+ 6 +
where: is the log salary for CEO i;
is the return on assets % for firm i;
is measured by the log of firm i’s total assets;
σi is the volatility measured by the daily return standard deviation (%);
is the age of the CEO for firm i;
