This document discusses a study that used regression analysis to quantify the factors that contribute to a country's ranking on the 2008 Freedom of the Press Index. The study examined factors like a country's system of government, GDP per capita, predominant religion, and urbanization level as possible explanatory variables for press freedom rankings. The regression analysis found that variables like a country's form of government and GDP per capita significantly predicted a country's press freedom ranking, with an adjusted R-squared of 0.57. However, the results may be specific to the sample of 173 countries studied and do not prove causation.

1. Freedom of the Press What factors contribute? Tre Rodriguez

2. Introduction: Freedom of Press Purpose of Research To use regression analysis to quantify the contribution of various factors to predict a country's ranking on the Freedom of the Press Index of 2008.

7. Between Sept 2007-Sept 2008

8. Index accounts for

9. Murders

10. Imprisonment

11. Physical attacks/threats

12. Censorship

13. Confiscation

14. Searches

17. Infant Mortality

18. Literacy Rate

19. Predominant Religion

20. GDP per Capita

23. T-test

24. Adjusted R-squared

26. Technical Questions Any violations of OLS Assumptions? Specification: Independent variables Specification: Functional Form Multicollinearity Serial Correlation Heteroskedasticity

30. Data Sources