Problem Set 9

Econ 2110

1. Let X be the forced vital capacity (FVC) in liters for a female college student. (The FVC is
the amount of air that a student can force out of her lungs.) Assume that the distribution
of X is approximately N (µ, σ 2 ). Suppose it is known that µ = 3.4 liters. A volleyball coach
claims that the FVC of volleyball players is greater than 3.4. She plans to test her claim with
a random sample of size n = 9.

(a) Define the null hypothesis.

(b) Define the coach’s alternative hypothesis.
(c) Define the test statistic.
(d) Define a critical region for which α = 0.05 (drawing a figure representing the distribution
of the test statistic may help you determine the critical region).
(e) Calculate the value of the test statistic given that the random sample yielded the fol-
lowing FVCs:

3.4 3.6 3.8 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.7 3.6 3.7

(f) What is your conclusion?

(g) What is the approximate p-value of this test?

2. To investigate possible gender discrimination in a firm, a sample of 100 men and 64 women
with similar job descriptions were selected at random. A summary of the monthly salaries
follows.
√
Average Salary (Y) Standard Deviation ( SY2 ) n
Men $3100 $200 100
Women $2900 $320 64

(a) What do these data suggest about wage differences in the firm? Do they represent
statistically significant evidence that the wages of men and women are different (at the
95% level)? (To answer this question, first state the null and alternative hypotheses;
second, compute the relevant t statistic; third compute the p-value associated with the
t-statistic; and finally use the p-value to answer the question).
(b) Do these data suggest that the firm is guilty of gender discrimination in its compensation
policies? Explain.

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3. Let X and Y denote the weights in grams of male and female common gallinules, respectively.
Assume that X ∼ N (µx , σx2 ) and Y ∼ N (µy , σy2 ).

(a) Assume the variances σx2 and σy2 are equal. Given n = 16 observations of X and m =
13 observations of Y , define a test statistic and a critical region for testing the null
hypothesis H0 ∶ µx = µy against the one-sided alternative hypothesis H1 ∶ µx > µy . Let
α = 0.01.
(b) Given that x̄ = 415.16, s2x = 1356.75, ȳ = 347.40, and s2y = 692.21, calculate the value of
the test statistic and state your conclusion.