a. Construct a frequency distribution for this data. Let the first class be 5059.

Remember that each class should have the same width.

b. Construct a cumulative frequency distribution.
c. Construct a relative frequency distribution.
d. Construct a cumulative relative frequency distribution.
3. A survey of 400 college seniors resulted in the following crosstabulation regarding their undergraduate major and whether or not they plan to go to graduate
school.
Graduate School

Undergraduate Major
Business Engineering Others

Total

Yes
No

35
91

42
104

63
65

140
260

Total

126

146

128

400

a. Are a majority of the seniors in the survey planning to attend graduate school?
b. Which discipline constitutes the majority of the individuals in the survey?
c. Compute row percentages and comment on the relationship between the students undergraduate major and their intention of attending graduate school.
d. Compute the column percentages and comment on the relationship between the
students intention of going to graduate school and their undergraduate major.
4. The growth rates in the population of Atlanta for the past five years are shown
below.
Year

Growth factors

1
2
3
4
5

1.0298
1.0270
1.0319
1.0258
1.0304

a. Compute the geometric mean.

b. What has been the average percentage growth in the population of Atlanta?

ECON 83a: Statistics for Economic Analysis

Problem Set #1, Fall 2016

Instructor: Tymon Soczynski

Due Date: September 9, 2016
Instructions: Your homework may be submitted in either of two ways. First, you
can put it in a cardboard box in front of my office (Sachar Intl Center 124) at any
time before 9:20 am on the due date. Second, you can bring it to class with you.
I will stop collecting homework ca. 5 minutes after the beginning of each class.
I MPORTANT: If you are officially registered for the 9:30 class, I will not accept your
homework if you bring it to the 11:00 class. I will not accept homework sent by
e-mail without prior approval.

1. The following information regarding a sample of seven students is provided.

Student

Identification Number

Grade Point Average

Classification

Gender

Rank in Class

Adam
Brandon
Jason
Marissa
Michelle
Wendy
Webster

1234
8978
6578
2345
8901
7789
6780

2.89
2.01
3.97
3.98
2.67
4.00
3.77

Senior
Junior
Freshman
Sophomore
Senior
Senior
Freshman

Male
Male
Male
Female
Female
Female
Male

15
25
3
2
18
1
4

a. How many elements are in the above data set?

b. How many variables are in this data set?
c. How many observations are in this data set?
d. Which variables are categorical and which are quantitative variables?
e. What measurement scale is used for each variable?
2. Below you are given the examination scores of 20 students.
52
63
92
90

99
72
58
75

92
76
65
74
1

86
95
79
56

84
88
80
99

Daily Demand (y)

Unit Price (x)

47
39
35
44
34
20
15
30

1
3
5
3
6
8
16
6

a. Compute and interpret the sample covariance for the above data.
b. Compute and interpret the sample correlation coefficient.
4. Consider a sample with the following data values.
462
490
350
294
574
a. Compute the standardized values for the above five observations.
5. An experiment consists of throwing two six-sided dice and observing the number of spots on the upper faces. Determine the probability that
a. the sum of the spots is 3.
b. each die shows four or more spots.
c. the sum of the spots is not 3.
d. neither a one nor a six appear on each die.
e. a pair of sixes appear.
f. the sum of the spots is 7.
6. A very short quiz has one multiple choice question with five possible choices (a,
b, c, d, e) and one true or false question. Assume you are taking the quiz but do
3

not have any idea what the correct answer is to either question, but you mark an
answer anyway.
a. What is the probability that you have given the correct answer to both questions?
b. What is the probability that only one of the two answers is correct?
c. What is the probability that neither answer is correct?
d. What is the probability that only your answer to the multiple choice question is
correct?
e. What is the probability that you have only answered the true or false question
correctly?
7. As in the case of Problem Set #1, download Nobel.dta from LATTE. Again,
open this data set in Stata and create a new variable, called Age, which records an
individuals age at which he or she received the award. (You should use a command called generate. As an example, if you wish to generate a new variable,
var1, which is equal to the difference between var2 and var3, you should type
generate var1 = var2 - var3.)
a. Use your responses from Problem Set #1 to calculate the range of age at award.
b. Use your responses from Problem Set #1 to calculate the interquartile range of
age at award.
c. Calculate the variance of age at award (type summarize Age, detail).
d. Calculate the standard deviation of age at award (type summarize Age).
e. Calculate the covariance of YOA and Age (type correlate YOA Age, covariance).
f. Calculate the correlation coefficient of YOA and Age (type correlate YOA Age).
Comment on the relationship between these two variables. What does it mean that
these two variables are related in this specific way?