Assignments: Quantitative Methods
Part 1 Assignment:
Any documents needed to complete the assignment questions are attached below.
Essay #1: The Gallup organization releases the results of recent polls at its website, www.gallup.com. Visit this site and read an article of interest.
1. Describe the population of interest.
2. Describe the sample that was collected.
3. Describe a parameter of interest.
4. Describe the statistic used to describe the parameter in (c).
A Gallup poll indicated that 74% of Americans who had yet to retire look to retirement accounts (such as 401(k), IRA, and Keogh account) as major funding sources when they retire. Interestingly, 40% also said that they looked to stocks or stock market mutual fund investments as major funding sources when they retire. (data extracted from D. Jacobs, "Investors Look Beyond Social Security to Fund Retirement," www.gallup.com, March 28, 2011). The results are based on telephone interviews conducted March 24, 2011, with 1,000 or more adults living in the United States, aged 18 and older.
1. Describe the population of interest.
2. Describe the sample that was collected.
3. Is 74% a parameter or a statistic? Explain.
4. Is 40% a parameter or a statistic?
Essay #2: A manufacturer of cat food was planning to survey households in the United States to determine purchasing habits of cat owners. Among the variables to be collected are the following:
• The primary place of purchase for cat food
• Whether dry or moist cat food is purchased
• The number of cats living in the household
• Whether any cat living in the household is pedigreed
1. For each of the four items listed, indicate whether the variable is categorical or numerical. If it is numerical, is it discrete or continuous?
2. Develop five categorical questions for the survey.
3. Develop five numerical questions for the survey.
Essay #3: In 2008, a university in the mid-western United States surveyed its full-time first-year students after they completed their first semester. Surveys were electronically distributed to all 3,727 students, and responses were obtained from 2,821 students. Of the students surveyed, 90.1% indicated that they had studied with other students, and 57.1% indicated they had tutored another student. The report also noted that 61.3% of the students surveyed came to class late at least once, and 45.8% admitted to being bored in class at least once.
1. Describe the population of interest.
2. Describe the sample that was collected.
3. Describe a parameter of interest.
4. Describe the statistic used to estimate the parameter in (c).
Essay #4: The Data and Story Library (DASL) is an online library of data files and stories that illustrate the use of basic statistical methods. Visit Data and Story Library, click DASL and explore a data set of interest to you.
1. Describe a variable in the data set you selected.
2. Is the variable categorical or numerical?
3. If the variable is numerical, is it discrete or continuous?
Essay #5: A sample of 62 undergraduate students answered the following survey:
1. What is your gender? Female ______ Male ______
2. What is your age (as of last birthday)? ______
3. What is your current registered class designation? Freshman ______ Sophomore ______ Junior ______ Senior ______
4. What is your major area of study? Accounting ______ Computer Information Systems ______ Economics/ Finance ______ International Business ______ Management ______ Retailing/ Marketing ______ Other ______ Undecided ______
5. At the present time, do you plan to attend graduate school? Yes ______ No ______ Not sure ______
6. What is your current cumulative grade point average? ______
7. What is your current employment status? Full time ______ Part time ______ Unemployed ______
8. What would you expect your starting annual salary (in $ 000) to be if you were to seek full- time employment immediately after obtaining your bachelor's degree? ______
9. For how many social networking sites are you registered? ______
10. How satisfied are you with the food and dining services on campus? ______ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Extremely Neutral Extremely unsatisfied satisfied
11. About how much money did you spend this semester for textbooks and supplies? ______
12. What type of computer do you prefer to use for your studies? Desktop ______ Laptop ______ Tablet/ notebook/ netbook ______
13. How many text messages do you send in a typical Part? ______
14. How much wealth (income, savings, investment, real estate, and other assets) would you have to accumulate (in millions of dollars) before you would say you are rich? ______
Based on your study of the survey and the results provided, answer the following:
1. Which variables in the survey are categorical?
2. Which variables in the survey are numerical?
3. Which variables are discrete numerical variables?
Part 2 Assignment:
Any documents needed to complete the assignment questions are attached below.
1. Open EndRunGuide.pdf, which contains the EndRun Financial Services "Guide to Investing." Review the guide, paying close attention to the company's investment claims and supporting data and then answer the following.
a. How does the presentation of the general information about EndRun in this guide affect your perception of the business?
b. Is EndRun's claim about having more winners than losers a fair and accurate reflection of the quality of its investment service? If you do not think that the claim is a fair and accurate one, provide an alternate presentation that you think is fair and accurate.
c. Review the discussion about EndRun's "Big Eight Difference" and then open and examine, a sample of mutual funds. Are there any other relevant data from that file that could have been included in the Big Eight table? How would the new data alter your perception of EndRun's claims?
d. EndRun is proud that all Big Eight funds have gained in value over the past five years. Do you agree that EndRun should be proud of its selections? Why or why not?
Reexamine EndRun's supporting data for the "More Winners Than Losers" and "The Big Eight Difference" and then answer the following:
e. Can descriptive measures be computed for any variables? How would such summary statistics support EndRun's claims? How would those summary statistics affect your perception of EndRun's record?
f. Evaluate the methods EndRun used to summarize the results presented on the "Customer Survey Results" page. Is there anything you would do differently to summarize these results?
g. Note that the last question of the survey has fewer responses than the other questions. What factors may have limited the number of responses to that question?
2. Recently, Ashland MultiComm Services has been criticized for its inadequate customer service in responding to questions and problems about its telephone, cable television, and Internet services. Senior management has established a task force charged with the business objective of improving customer service. In response to this charge, the task force collected data about the types of customer service errors, the cost of customer service errors, and the cost of wrong billing errors. It found the following data:
a. Review these data (stored in AMS2-1.xlsx). Identify the variables that are important in describing the customer service problems. For each variable you identify, construct the graphical representation you think is most appropriate and explain your choice. Also, suggest what other information concerning the different types of errors would be useful to examine. Offer possible courses of action for either the task force or management to take that would support the goal of improving customer service.
b. As a follow-up activity, the task force decides to collect data to study the pattern of calls to the help desk (stored in AMS2- 2.xlsx). Analyze these data and present your conclusions in a report.
c. For what variables are numerical descriptive measures needed?
d. For the variable you identify, compute the appropriate numerical descriptive measures and construct a boxplot.
e. For the variable you identify, construct a graphical display. What conclusions can you reach from this other plot that cannot be made from the boxplot?
f. Summarize your findings in a report that can be included with the task force's study.
3. The following table represents the market share (in number of movies, gross in millions of dollars, and in number of tickets sold in millions) of each type of movie in 2009:
a. Construct a bar chart, a pie chart, and a Pareto chart for the number of movies, gross (in millions of dollars), and number of tickets sold (in millions).
b. What conclusions can you reach about the market share of the different types of movies in 2009?
4. The file Natural Gas.xls contains the monthly average wellhead and residential price for natural gas (dollars per thousand cu. ft.) in the United States from January 1, 2008, to January 1, 2011. For the wellhead price and the residential price: Source: "Energy Information Administration".
a. Construct a time-series plot.
b. What pattern, if any, is present in the data?
c. Construct a scatter plot of the wellhead price and the residential price.
d. What conclusion can you reach about the relationship between the wellhead price and the residential price?
5. You want to compare bond funds based on risk. Use a website to find the funds you are comparing. For each of these three levels of risk (below average, average, above average), use the variables expense ratio, return 2009, three-year return, and five-year return and complete the following.
a. Compute the mean, median, first quartile, and third quartile.
b. Compute the range, interquartile range, variance, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation.
c. Construct a boxplot. Are the data skewed? If so, how?
d. Based on the results of (a) through (c), what conclusions can you reach about differences between bond funds based on risk?
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.
Attachment:- Quantitative-Methods.rar