a blog about using R for data analysis – one story, one analysis at a time.
-
From Chaos to Clarity: Effortless Data Merging with R
The Problem: Manually merging datasets.Errors creep in. Rows get lost.It’s a slow, frustrating grind. The Hack: R fixes this.Use left_join() for smart merging.It matches rows by a common key. Example: Here’s what you start with: Dataset 1: key_column value1 A Data A1 B Data B1 C Data C1 Dataset 2: key_column value2 A Data A2…
-
Interactive Storytelling with R Shiny: Breathing Life into Data
Imagine a dashboard that breathes life into raw data, transforming it into vivid insights. Each piece of code in this R Shiny application weaves together a seamless experience for users, delivering clarity and actionable intelligence from a previously overwhelming dataset. The Fetching of DataThe magic begins with a call to an API, pulling in raw…
-
Teenage Jobless Rates: A Data-Driven Analysis of Minimum Wage Impact
The minimum wage is often championed as a tool to uplift the working poor, ensuring fair compensation for their labor. However, economist and social theorist Thomas Sowell presents a compelling critique, arguing that the minimum wage can harm the very workers it aims to help. Data on teenage unemployment rates between 1972 and 2016 adds…
-
Debt-Free America: Lessons from Andrew Jackson and William McKinley to Tackle Modern Debt and Inflation
Andrew Jackson and William McKinley serve as two pivotal figures in the history of the United States whose approaches to managing national debt and economic policy offer valuable lessons for contemporary fiscal challenges. Despite the absence of the Federal Reserve during their presidencies, both leaders leveraged unique strategies to manage public debt and sustain economic…
-
Visualizing Health Coverage: A Tale of Two Trends – How the Affordable Care Act and State Policies Shaped Uninsured Rates and Medicaid Enrollment Across the U.S.
The two temporal heatmaps, showcasing trends in uninsured rates and Medicaid enrollment rates across states, highlight significant differences in health insurance coverage patterns over time. The Uninsured Rate heatmap reveals a steady decline in uninsured populations across most states, with noticeable improvements starting around 2014, coinciding with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).…
-
Analysis: The Affordable Care Act and Uninsured Rates
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), enacted in 2010, marked a significant milestone in the U.S. healthcare system, aiming to reduce the uninsured population and increase access to affordable health insurance. A key feature of the ACA was the individual mandate, which required most Americans to have health insurance or face a financial penalty. Using health…
-
R Made Simple: Combining Multiple Files into One Seamless Dataset
Merging multiple files in R is a common task for data analysts and researchers, particularly when working with datasets that are spread across separate files, such as annual reports or survey data. This guide provides a step-by-step approach to consolidating multiple files into a single, unified dataset. To begin, you need to identify the directory…
-
The Uninsured Landscape: Exploring America’s Healthcare Coverage Gaps
Disparities in Uninsured Rates Across States The visualization ranks U.S. states by the percentage of uninsured individuals aged 0-64, revealing significant disparities in healthcare coverage across the nation. Texas stands out with the highest uninsured rate of 19%, which is more than double that of California and Florida, the next highest states, at 9.3% and…
-
Analysis of Consumer Price Index (CPI) Over Time: Did the Inflation Reduction Act Reduce Inflation?
The chart above illustrates the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from January 1, 1913, to the present, highlighting the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) enactment on August 16, 2022 with a dashed vertical line. This act aimed to combat rising inflation and stabilize prices. To assess its impact, we conducted a statistical analysis to answer the question:…
-
1971 and Beyond: A Statistical Insight Into the Inflation Impact of Fiat Currency
Overview of the Chart This chart shows the Consumer Price Index (CPI) Over Time from January 1, 1913, to the present, highlighting a significant shift in inflation trends. The CPI remained relatively stable and grew gradually from 1913 to the early 1970s, reflecting an era when the U.S. dollar was backed by gold. However, after…