In: Statistics and Probability
in a certain year the mean interest rate on loans to a random sample of 80 large retailers (that is, those with assets of $10,000,000 or more) was 10.0% and the standard deviation was 0.6%. Two years later, a random sample of 100 loans to large retailers yielded a mean interest rate of 10.25% and a standard deviation of 0.72%.
a. Would you conclude that there has been a change in the average level of interest rates for large retailers? Use a 0.01 level of significance.
b. Find a 96% confidence interval for the difference between the two means.