UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA

EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF APPLIED STATISTICS

ACADEMIC SESSION: 2011/2012

SEMESTER 2

ESGC6121: Survey Techniques and Sampling Design

June 2012

TIME : 2 hours

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES:
Answer all questions.

This is an OPEN BOOK examination.

This examination is conducted at the computer lab.
This paper constitutes 50 per cent of the course evaluation.

(This question paper consists of 7 questions on 6 printed pages) and a diskette

containing Empsat, Marriage and District data).

ESGC6121/02
Question 1 (5 marks)
You are commissioned to conduct a market survey for a new academic program. Your
main respondents are the alumni of the faculty and potential employers.
a) Describe the sampling frame, and an appropriate method of selecting a sample of
1,000 respondents, to ensure sufficient sample size for each group.
(3 marks)
b) Describe an appropriate data collection method for the survey, to ensure an
acceptable response rate.
(2 marks)

Question 2 (5 marks)
Click on the correct answer for each of the following multiple choice questions:
a) What is the first step in the marketing research process?
developing a marketing information system
implementing the research plan
interpreting data and deciding on type of research
developing the research plan for collecting information
defining the problem and research objective
b ) The most important characteristic of the sample in survey research is that it is
large enough to compare differences between subgroups.
convenient to access.
easily observed in naturalistic settings.
representative of the target population.

ESGC6121/03
c) Which of the following questions is LEAST useful in a study of attitudes toward
smoking?
Do you smoke or have problems with others who smoke?
Do you view smoking as unhealthy?
Are you bothered by secondary smoke?
Do you think that tobacco companies should be held responsible for smokingrelated illnesses?
d) The cover letter to a questionnaire study should contain all of the following EXCEPT
a
self-addressed,
envelope.
purpose of the study.

stamped

reasons to respond.
a list of participants.

e) The major problem with non-respondents in survey research is that

they tend to be alike in many ways.
data cannot be analyzed for only part of a sample.
they may have different opinions than respondents.
they cannot be found to determine if they are similar to
respondents.

ESGC6121/04
Question 3 (12 marks)
Use Empsat data contained in the diskette to answer a-d:
a). Cross-tabulate job satisfaction by i) gender, and ii) decision-making. Perform the
appropriate statistical tests.
(3 marks)
b) Compare mean income by i) occupation, and ii) gender, and perform appropriate
statistical test.
.
(3 marks)
c) Compare mean income of respondents by occupation and gender. Present the result
in a table and a chart.
(3 marks)
d) Interpret the results in a-c above.

(3 marks)

Question 4 (5 marks)
Use marriage data contained in the diskette to answer a-b:
a) Create an index on socio-economic status (as measured by education, job and
income). Perform the reliability test.
(3 marks)
b) Recode the index obtained in part a) into 3 categories, and give appropriate value
labels.
(2 marks)

Question 5 (5 marks)
Use district data contained in the diskette to answer a-b:
a) select 8 districts, with probability proportional to population size in 1991.

(2 marks)

b) estimate the average rate of population growth between 1980 and 1991, based on
the 8 selected districts, and place a bound on the error of estimation. (Hint: PPS
selection)
(3 marks)

ESGC6121/05
Question 6 (10 marks)
A multinational company wants to conduct an opinion survey on the extension of
retirement age. Results of the survey based on stratified random sampling are shown
below:
Category of staff
Managerial and executive

Number of
staff
500

Sample size
50

P (proportion in favour
of the extension)
0.8

2000

200

0.5

Support staff

a) Estimate the proportion of workers in the company in favor of extending the

retirement age, and place a bound on the error of estimation.
(3 marks)
p
var(p)
se(p)
margin of error

0.56
0.0008
41
0.0290
03
0.0580
06

b) If the above survey was based on simple random sampling of 250 respondents, and
the variance of the estimate is 0.0012, what is the design effect of the stratified random
sample?
(1 mark)
0.000841/0.0012 = 0.7 the design is more effective than the srs
c) What would be the required sample size if the bound of error is to be reduced to 0.03,
using i) proportional allocation, and ii) Neyman allocation?
(4 marks)
730.01
89
724.98
43

146.00
38
120.83
07

584.01
51
604.15
36

d). Assuming that half of the workers are in favor of extending the retirement age, what
is the required sample size, using simple random sampling, to estimate the proportion,
with a bound of error of 0.4.
(2 marks)

population
proportion
var
SE
ME
n
CV

0.5
0.0009
04
0.0300
6
0.0601
2
5.9905
13
6.0120
36

B
D

0.4
0.0416
49

ESGC6121/06
Question 7 (8 marks)
7. There are 12 faculties in University Y. A researcher wants to estimate the number of
conferences attended by academic staff of the University in 2011. He decided to select
4 faculties, with probability proportional to the number of staff in each faculty, and
interview 25 staff from each of the selected faculties.
a) Using the data given in the accompanying table, select the 4 faculties, with
systematic sampling in stage 1. Let 120 be the random start.
(2 marks)
b) Write down the sampling fraction in the first stage and second stage, and the overall
sampling fraction for the four selected faculties.
(2 marks)
Faculty
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L

Number of Stage 1
academic staff sampling
fraction
60
100
50
45
90
110
200
55
80
90
50
280

Stage 2
sampling
fraction

Overall
sampling
fraction

c) The survey found that the average number of conferences attended by staff of the
selected faculties was 0.8, 0.4. 0.4 and 1.0 respectively. Estimate the average number
of conferences attended by academic staff of the university, and place a bound on the
error of estimation.
(4 marks)
END