Description of the variables used in the final model.
| Participation Dependent or left-hand side variable denoted as the days of public volunteer assistance per million people; this is defined as the number of days in which citizens voluntarily participated in U&CF programs and projects in the state; it is divided by state population (in millions) Communities2 Number of communities squared per million people in the state that took part in some U&CF program or project; it is divided by state population (in millions) WorkingPop Percent of the state population between the ages of 18 and 65 Forestland Percent of land in the state that is forested Income* Average per capita disposable income divided by average household income Political A dummy variable representing the way the state voted in the 2004 presidential election; 1 = Republican 0 = Democrat %Education$ Percent of total state government expenditures on education |
The subscript “i” indicates an individual state.