statistics

1. MBB Problem 2.12 (modified)

The city manager of Snook, Texas, wants to generate some statistics on a voluntary free flu shot clinic for city employees. Specifically, she has the following data on her employees, including whether employees received shots and whether they took sick leave during the winter months:

(a) Develop a coding scheme for Gender.

(b) Develop a coding scheme for Department.

(c) Develop a coding scheme for Age.

(d) Develop a coding scheme for Received Shot.

(e) Develop a coding scheme for Took Sick Leave.

2. MBB Problem 3.4 (modified)

For the entire month of January 2014, the local domestic violence shelter ran a series of ads on the government access cable television channel. The director of the shelter hypothesized that the ads would bring more attention to the problem of domestic violence and make victims of domestic violence more aware of the shelter’s programs. The director has monthly data on the number of new clients. At the end of April 2014, the director asks you to come up with a research design to help assess whether the ads had an effect on the number of clients served.

(a) What is the concept that the director wants to measure?

(b) What is the indicator that the director is proposing to use to measure that concept?

(c) What level (interval, ordinal or nominal) of indicator is the number of clients served?

(d) What is the independent variable in the director’s hypothesis?

(e) What is the dependent variable in the director’s hypothesis?

(f) What type of research design (experimental or quasi-experimental and, if quasi-experimental, cross-sectional, case, panel, trend or mixed) would you use to test the hypothesis? Explain your answer in a few sentences.

(g) The director has monthly figures for the number of clients served in 2013. Are these data relevant for testing the above hypothesis? If so, why? Explain your answers in a few sentences.

3. MBB Problem 4.6 (modified)

The city clerk has received numerous complaints over the past year that couples applying for a marriage license have to wait too long to receive one. Although the clerk is skeptical (couples applying for a license are usually young and impatient), she pulls a representative sample of marriage licenses issued in the past year. Because a machine stamps each license application with the time the application is received and the time it is issued, she can tell how long the young (and old) lovers had to wait for the marriage license. The clerk considers service received in less than 10 minutes good and service received in less than 15 minutes acceptable. Her sample of license data is as follows:

(a) Prepare the frequency distribution for these data.

(b) Prepare the percentage distribution for these data.

(c) Prepare a cumulative percentage distribution for these data.

(d) Prepare a histogram for these data.

(e) Which of these presentations is most useful for the city clerk? What should the city clerk conclude? Explain your answers in a few sentences. (You do not have to write a memorandum, as in the original MBB problem.)

4. MBB Problem 5.12 (modified)

The head of the Data Processing Department in Springhill wants to estimate the amount of waste and inefficiency in her department. She conducts a survey of employees in the department. One question asks, “To what extent does this department have waste and inefficiency in its operations?” The responses to the item are given in the accompanying table.

(a) At what level of measurement are these data?

(b) Calculate the percentage distribution.

(c) Calculate the appropriate measures of central tendency.

(d) According to these data, does the department appear to have a problem with waste and inefficiency? Explain your answer in a few sentences.

5. MBB Problem 6.10 (modified)

The director of the South Bloomington YMCA has become concerned about the health of the organization’s employees. He issues a directive to all YMCA sites advising all managers to encourage employees to get at least 60 minutes of exercise per day. Following are the data on the number of minutes exercised per day (on the average) by the 10 employees of the South Bloomington YMCA site:

75 20 15 95 30 100 40 10 90 120

(a) Calculate the mean, median, mode, and standard deviation for these data.

(b) How well do these employees meet the standard for exercise recommended by the director of the YMCA? Explain your answer in a few sentences.

6. MBB Problem 6.18 (modified)

The director of the Madison County jail is planning to testify before the Wisconsin state legislature with the goal of obtaining more state funds for the county jail system. In preparing his remarks, the director plans to present data on the average number of days that prisoners remain in jail. The director believes that his case will be more compelling if he can show that the average stay for prisoners is greater than 21 days. The director asks you, as chief operations officer for the jail, to calculate descriptive statistics for a random sample of 250 prisoners processed in the last 9 months. (Note: The data set for this problem is posted on Blackboard.)

(a) Calculate the mean, median, mode, and standard deviation for these data.

(b) What can you tell the director about his 21-day target? Explain your answer in a few sentences.

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