Despite the growth in digital entertainment, the nation’s 400 amusement parks have managed to hold on to visitors. A manager collects data on the number of visitors (in millions) to amusement parks in the United States. A portion of the data is shown in the accompanying table.

SOURCE: International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.
Click here for the Excel Data File

a. Estimate the linear trend model to make forecasts for 2008. (Round your answers to 2 decimal places.)

yˆ =

b. Estimate the exponential trend model to make forecasts for 2008. (Round your answers to 2 decimal places.)

yˆ =

“There is strong evidence of an impending implosion of the pension funding system in the United States. Local and state financial problems are accelerating because public entities promised pensions they could not afford. It is now time for all government pension plans to employ the use of a liability-based discount rate for the measurement of present value pension obligations. Prompt remedial action is necessary to avoid systemic financial catastrophe!” Discuss.

Items to consider:

Logical Format of Response.

Word count – at least 350 words, and preferably not more than 700 words.

Introduction – to what extent to you agree / disagree?

Background of Issue/s, including description/definition of present value pension obligations, and liability-based discount rate.

Discussion of Issues (with appropriate examples)

Conclusion.

Appropriate use of references.

Originality.

Suppose you are a stock market analyst at Goldman Sachs, specializing in the stocks of theme parks, and you are examining Disneyland’s stocks. The Wall Street Journal reports that tourism has slowed down in the United States. You also find out that at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, a new Viper roller coaster is now opening and another new ride, Skyrush, will be opening this year. a. Use the demand and supply model, to graphically analyze and predict the impact of these events on the attendance at Disneyland. What are the likely effects on ticket prices and attendance at Disneyland? b. In the same article in Wall Street Journal, you read that Disneyland has slashed ticket prices and admitted attendance was somewhat lower. Is this consistent with your demand and supply analysis in part a?

In the following problem, check that it is appropriate to use the normal approximation to the binomial. Then use the normal distribution to estimate the requested probabilities.

More than a decade ago, high levels of lead in the blood put 86% of children at risk. A concerted effort was made to remove lead from the environment. Now, suppose only 15% of children in the United States are at risk of high blood-lead levels.

(a) In a random sample of 220 children taken more than a decade ago, what is the probability that 50 or more had high blood-lead levels? (Round your answer to three decimal places.)


(b) In a random sample of 220 children taken now, what is the probability that 50 or more have high blood-lead levels? (Round your answer to three decimal places.)

Answer the following:

25. Intelligence tests can be utilized to identify vocational and educational opportunities. T          F

26. What are drive reduction impulses? ___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

27. Human behavior is primarily instinctual. T        F

28. What are gut reactions? _________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

29. Explain the stages of Maslow’s theory of hierarchy:

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

30. Men on the average earn less than women on the job. T         F

31. The degree of aggressive behavior between men and women is identical.

T           F

32. There are not any general differences between men and women regarding IQ scores.    T         F

33. A mother who drinks alcohol regularly may possibly give birth to a child with cognitive issues.    T        F

34. One in 10 people in the United states will be infected with a STI at some point or another.    T       F

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released hourly wage figures for various countries for workers in the manufacturing sector. The hourly wage was $30.67 for Switzerland, $20.20 for Japan, and $23.82 for the U.S. Assume that in all three countries, the standard deviation of hourly labor rates is $3.00.

Appendix A Statistical Tables

a. Suppose 42 manufacturing workers are selected randomly from across Switzerland and asked what their hourly wage is. What is the probability that the sample average will be between $30.00 and $31.00?
b. Suppose 33 manufacturing workers are selected randomly from across Japan. What is the probability that the sample average will exceed $21.00?
c. Suppose 49 manufacturing workers are selected randomly from across the United States. What is the probability that the sample average will be less than $22.80?

1)Suppose that the Fed is fixing the dollar-pound exchange rate at $2.75 = £1. If the Fed's reserve of pounds falls by £100 million, by how much would the supply of dollars increase, all other things equal?

a)275 million

b)500 million

c)0

d)-500 million

2) In 2009, the United States:

a)imported more services than it exported.

b)imported more goods than it exported.

c)traded mainly with developing nations such as Mexico and India.

d)had a small trade surplus in goods and services.

3) You know that (1 + 0.08)³ = 1.26. What is the present value of $126 received in three years if the annual interest rate is 8 percent?

a)$100

b)$10

c)$126

d)$144

Per capita income depends on the savings rate of the country: e.g. countries who save more end up with a higher standard of living. To test this theory, you collect data from the Penn World Tables on GDP per worker relative to the United States (RelProd) in 1990 and the average investment share of GDP from 1980-1990 (SK), remembering that investment equals saving. The regression results (using heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors) are:

RelProd = −0.08 + 2.44 ×SK , R2 = 0.46, SER = 0.21 (0.04) (0.26)

(Q4) Interpret the regression results carefully (including both coefficients and the R2) and Calculate the t-statistics to determine whether the two coefficients are significantly different from zero. Justify the use of a one-sided or two-sided test.

In the following problem, check that it is appropriate to use the normal approximation to the binomial. Then use the normal distribution to estimate the requested probabilities. More than a decade ago, high levels of lead in the blood put 83% of children at risk. A concerted effort was made to remove lead from the environment. Now, suppose only 13% of children in the United States are at risk of high blood-lead levels.

(a) In a random sample of 190 children taken more than a decade ago, what is the probability that 50 or more had high blood-lead levels? (Round your answer to three decimal places.)

(b) In a random sample of 190 children taken now, what is the probability that 50 or more have high blood-lead levels? (Round your answer to three decimal places.)

13. The National Institutes of Health funded a study of a random sample of 856 people age 71 and older in the United States. They found that 9.7% of these people suffer from Alzheimer’s Disease.

a.Is .097 (the decimal version of 9.7%) a parameter or a statistic? What symbol do you use to represent 0.097?

b.

First, calculate the lower end of the confidence interval.

Report your answer to three decimals and round appropriately; e.g., 0.xxx (3 points)

c.

Next, calculate the upper end of the interval.

Report your answer to three decimals and round appropriately; e.g., 0.xxx. (1 point)

d. If you were to calculate a 90% confidence interval, would it be wider or narrower than the 95% confidence interval? (1 point)