Econ 305 week 6, Finc 330 week 6, and Econ 430 week 6

Econ 305

Data Exercise #3 Instructions

Please submit your findings in a WORD document.

Please use the following website to help you complete this task: www.bea.gov

www.bea.gov will provide the needed GDP data

You will also need to locate (on your own) a source that reports historical Prime Rates. Use your favorite search engine (Yahoo, Dogpile, Bing, etc) and deploy a search equal to or akin to “historical prime rate.” Or you can simply use this link provided by the Federal Reserve:

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h15/data.htm

(1) Acquire the Percent Change in Real GDP figures for each quarter of the last ten years.

(2) Acquire the Prime Rate for the same: You may have to be creative in selecting which Prime Rate to use per quarter. That is your call as the statistician. Do explain your technique in the paper or an appendix. The Federal Reserve link provided above provides monthly rates, so, for example, you could take an average of the three months per quarter to derive the rate or you can simply use the last month of the quarter. Or you could use the first month. Again, it is your call.

(3) Enter those figures in EXCEL and complete a Correlation Analysis & Simple Regression. Is the relationship strong? Is it positive or negative? Use economic theory to explain the relationship or lack thereof in your findings.

(4) Report your findings in a written document that includes your results in tabular form.

*You may have to *add* Data Analysis to your Excel program.

*You may use another program to run your regression analysis if you are more comfortable doing so.

FORMAT

Title Page

Content & Analysis

Reference List

Appendix of Data (EXCEL sheets)