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This homework covers the topics: one sample hypothesis tests by hand, hypothesis testing
using the computer and p-values, and two sample testing and confidence intervals. Note
that several of the problems involve Stata. Do not include a lot of computer output; in most
cases, just reporting the p-value from the Stata hypothesis test is sufficient.
Hypothesis Test for a Population Mean
1) To test : 45 : 45
o a
H H = , a simple random sample of size n = 40 is obtained.
Suppose that 48.3 x = and 8.5 s = .
a) By hand, compute and interpret the test statistic.
b) Draw a normal distribution with the are that represents the p-value shaded.
Determine and interpret the p-value.
2) Do students who learned English as well as another language simultaneously score
worse on the SAT Critical Reading exam than the general population of test takers?
The mean score among all test takers on the SAT Critical Reading exam is 501. A
random sample of 100 test takers who learned English as well as another language
simultaneously had a mean SAT Critical Reading score of 485 with a standard
deviation of 116. Do these results suggest that students who learn English as well as
another language simultaneously score worse on the SAT Critical Reading exam? Test
: 501 : 501
o a
H H = < by hand using both the test statistic and p-value method.
Confirm your results using Stata.
3) Women Getting Taller? In 1990, the mean height of women 20 years of age or older
was 63.7 inches based on data obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and
Preventions Advance Data Report, No. 347. Suppose that a random sample of 45
women who are 20 years of age or older today results in a mean height of 63.9 inches.
We want to test if women are taller today by computing the p-value for the test
: 63.9 : 63.9
o a
H H = > . Dont just obtain the p-value from Stata, show the steps
involved in calculating it.
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4) A growing concern of employers is time spent in activities like surfing the Internet
and e-mailing friends during work hours. The San Luis Obispo Tribune summarized
the findings from a survey of a large sample of workers in an article that ran under the
headline Who Goofs Off 2 Hours a Day? Most Workers, Survey Says (August 3,
2006).

Suppose that the CEO of a large company wants to determine whether the average
amount of wasted time during an 8-hour work day for employees of her company is
less than the reported 120 minutes. Each person in a random sample of 10 employees
was contacted and asked about daily wasted time at work. (Participants would
probably have to be guaranteed anonymity to obtain truthful responses!) The resulting
data produced the following summary statistics, n=10, 116.80 x = and 9.45 s = .

Do these data provide evidence that the mean wasted time for this company is less
than 120 minutes? Run and interpret the appropriate test in Stata. Clearly state your
conclusion.


5) A state environmental study concerning the number of scrap-tires accumulated per
tire dealership during the past year was conducted. The null hypothesis is Ho: =
2500 and the alternative hypothesis is Ha : 2500, where represents the mean
number of scrap-tires per dealership in the state. For a random sample of 85
dealerships, the mean is 2725 and the standard deviation is 955.

a. Conduct by hand the hypothesis test at the 5% level of significance. Use the
confidence interval method or test statistic method. Be sure to clearly state
your conclusion.
b. Give the Stata solution to the problem using the p-value. Clearly state your
results.

6) A television golf analyst claims that the mean drive for professional golfers is more
than 270 yards. In file golfdrive.xls are the lengths of 64 randomly selected drives
from the 100th U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Using Stata, test the analysts claim.
Clearly state your hypothesis and results.


Hypothesis Test for a population proportion

7) The Francis Company is evaluating the promotability of its employeesthat is,
determining the proportion of employees whose ability, training, and supervisory
experience qualify them for promotion to the next level of management. The human
resources director of Francis Company tells the president that 80 percent of the
employees in the company are promotable. However, a special committee
appointed by the president finds that only 75 percent of the 200 employees who have
been interviewed are qualified for promotion. Test : 0.8 : 0.8
o a
H p H p = using
whatever method you want. Clearly explain your conclusion.
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8) A recent report states that in a random sample of 1000 American adults, 700 indicated
that they oppose the reinstatement of a military draft. Is there convincing evidence
that the proportion of American adults who oppose reinstatement of the draft is
greater than two-thirds? Test (using a test statistic or pvalue)
: 0.66 : 0.66
o a
H p H p = > and clearly state your conclusion.


9) The paper Debt Literacy, Financial Experiences and Over-Indebtedness (Social
Science Research Network, Working paper W14808, 2008) included analysis of data
from a national sample of 1000 Americans. One question on the survey was:

You owe $3000 on your credit card. You pay a minimum payment of $30 each
month. At an Annual Percentage Rate of 12% (or 1% per month), how many
years would it take to eliminate your credit card debt if you made no additional
charges?

Answer options for this survey question were: (a) less than 5 years; (b) between 5
and 10 years; (c) between 10 and 15 years; (d) neveryou will continue to be in
debt; (e) dont know; and (f) prefer not to answer.

Only 354 of the 1000 respondents chose the correct answer of never. For purposes of
this exercise, you can assume that the sample is representative of adult Americans. Is
there convincing evidence that the proportion of adult Americans who can answer
this question correctly is less than .40 (40%)? Test : 0.40 : 0.40
o a
H p H p = < using
both the test statistic and p-value method (from Stata). Clearly state your conclusion.


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Confidence Intervals and Hypothesis Tests for Two Samples

10) Do people who work long hours have more trouble sleeping? This question was
examined in the paper Long Working Hours and Sleep Disturbances: The Whitehall
II Prospective Cohort Study (Sleep [2009]: 737745). The data in the accompanying
table are from two independently selected samples of British civil service workers, all
of whom were employed full-time and worked at least 35 hours per week. The
authors of the paper believed that these samples were representative of full-time
British civil service workers who work 35 to 40 hours per week and of British civil
service workers who work more than 40 hours per week.



a. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the difference between the proportion
of workers who get less than 7 hours of sleep per night for people who work
over 40 hours per week versus the proportion of workers who get less than 7
hours of sleep for workers who work less than 40 hours. Feel free to use Stata.
b. Briefly interpret the confidence interval.



11) Each person in random samples of 247 male and 253 female working adults living in
Calgary, Canada, was asked how long, in minutes, his or her typical daily commute
was (Calgary Herald Traffic Study, Ipsos, September 17, 2005). The summary
statistics are shown below for the two different groups.



a) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the difference between the mean
commuting time of men and the mean commuting time of women (use Stata).
b) Interpret the confidence interval in context.






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12) A group of 18 concertgoers was selected at random. Before the concert they were
given a hearing test, and then were given another one after the concert. (The volume
varied during the test, and the person also had to state which ear the sound was in.)
Here are the number of correctly identified sounds out of 10, both before and after the
concert.



a) Using Stata, construct a 95% confidence interval for the mean of the
differences between the scores before the concert and the scores after the
concert.
b) At the 0.05 level of significance, test using Stata whether a persons
hearing is adversely affected by the noise of a concert.

13) A hotel chain is interested in evaluating reservation processes. Guests can reserve a
room by using either a telephone system or an online system that is accessed through
the hotels web site. Independent random samples of 80 guests who reserved a room
by phone and 60 guests who reserved a room online were selected. Of those who
reserved by phone, 57 reported that they were satisfied with the reservation process.
Of those who reserved online, 50 reported that they were satisfied. Based on these
data, is it reasonable to conclude that the proportion who are satisfied is higher for
those who reserve a room online? Run and interpret the appropriate test in Stata.

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14) In the paper Happiness for Sale: Do Experiential Purchases Make Consumers Happier
than Material Purchases? (Journal of Consumer Research [2009]: 188197), the authors
distinguish between spending money on experiences (such as travel) and spending money
on material possessions (such as a car). In an experiment to determine if the type of
purchase affects how happy people are with the purchase after it has been made, 185
college students were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The students in the
experiential group were asked to recall a time when they spent about $300 on an
experience, and then they rated this purchase on three different happiness scales that were
then combined into an overall measure of happiness.

The students assigned to the material group were asked to recall a time that they spent
about $300 on an object. The mean happiness score was 5.75 for the experiential group
and5.27 for the material group. Standard deviations and sample sizes were not given in
the paper, but for purposes of this exercise, suppose that they were as follows:



Use Stata to carry out a hypothesis test to determine if the data supports the authors
conclusion that experiential purchases induced more reported happiness. Clearly report
your results.