The context for the Analytics Challenge project is theHousehold Pulse Survey(Links to an external site.)(HPS) undertaken by the U.S. census bureau during the coronavirus pandemic. HPS was executed in...

The context for the Analytics Challenge project is theHousehold Pulse Survey(Links to an external site.)(HPS) undertaken by the U.S. census bureau during the coronavirus pandemic. HPS was executed in multiple phases and U.S. households were surveyed to unearth the social and economic impacts ofthe coronavirus pandemic. Publicly available data files contain individual (household) responses to survey questions and are available on a weekly basis from thesurvey website(Links to an external site.).

Students can utilize the CSV version of the weekly public use filesposted here(Links to an external site.). Each CSV version of the data is a zip file (e.g., “HPS week 1 PUF CSV(Links to an external site.)”) that contains the following files:

• Data dictionary, which is an Excel spreadsheet with survey questions and explanations (e.g., “pulse2020_data.dictionary_CSV_01.xlsx”)


• Weekly household pulse survey data (e.g., “pulse2020_puf_01.csv”)


• Data about survey replicate weights (e.g., “pulse2020_repwgt_puf_01.csv”) which is used to convey information about sample design. For the purposes of the Analytics Challenge project, students can ignore this file.

Since weekly data is available from multiple phases and U.S. States, a wide range of analysis designs and storytelling options are possible (e.g., using specific subsample of data such as Pennsylvania data only, cross-sectional approach of using only a specific time period, longitudinal comparisons across time periods and regions). Depending on their analysis goals and storytelling intent, students are welcome to construct (i.e., select, aggregate, and collate) their own sample utilizing the above-referenced publicly available HPS files. As desired, students are also permitted to augment the HPS data with any other relevant data of their choice