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Chapter 1: Q37. (page 52)

Current population survey. The employment status (employed or unemployed) of each individual in the U.S. workforce is a set of data that is of interest to economists, businesspeople, and sociologists. To obtain information about the employment status of the workforce, the U.S. Bureau of the Census conducts what is known as the Current Population Survey. Each month interviewers visit about 50,000 of the 117 million households in the United States and question the occupants over 14 years of age about their employment status. Their responses enable the Bureau of the Census to estimate the percentage of people in the labor force who are unemployed (the unemployment rate).

a. Define the population of interest to the Census Bureau.

b. What variable is being measured? Is it quantitative or qualitative?

c. Is the problem of interest to the Census Bureau descriptive or inferential?

d. In order to monitor the rate of unemployment, it is essential to have a definition of unemployed. Different economists and even different countries define it in various ways. Develop your own definition of an "unemployed person." Your definition should answer such questions as: Are students on summer vacation unemployed? Are college professors who do not teach summer school unemployed? At what age are people considered to be eligible for the workforce? Are people who are out of work but not actively seeking a job unemployed?

Short Answer

Expert verified

a. All the individuals that are above the age of 14 years.

b. The employment status; this variable is qualitative.

c. Descriptive statistics

d. An unemployed person is above 14 years of age and has keenly searched for employment for more than six months but couldn't find it.

Step by step solution

01

Identifying the population

The population of interest to the Census Bureau isthe set of individuals above 14 years of age, and their status of employability is recorded.

02

Determining the variable of interest

The variable here is theemployment status, and it can be categorized into 2 categories employed and unemployed. Therefore this is aqualitative variable.

03

Defining the study to be descriptive

Thestudy is descriptivebecause the study is used to explain the data; this study is used in explaining the employment status and hence will be used to compute the unemployment rate. Moreover, no generalization is made; hence it cannot be an inferential study.

04

Providing the definition

Individuals are in the category of unemployed when they are above the age of 14 years are unable to seek the desired employment opportunities for a term that is higher than 6 months. They have to be actively seeking the work.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Can money spent on gifts buy love? Is the gift you purchased for that special someone really appreciated? This was the question of interest to business professors at Stanford University. Their research was published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 45, 2009). In one study, the researchers investigated the link between engagement ring price (dollars) and level of appreciation of the recipient (measured on a 7-point scale where 1 = “not at all” and 7 = “to a great extent”). Participants for the study were those who used a popular Web site for engaged couples. The Web site’s directory was searched for those with “average” American names (e.g., “John Smith,” “Sara Jones”). These individuals were then invited to participate in an online survey in exchange for a $10 gift certificate. Of the respondents, those who paid really high or really low prices for the ring were excluded, leaving a sample size of 33 respondents.

a. Identify the experimental units for this study.

b. What are the variables of interest? Are they quantitative or qualitative in nature?

c. Describe the population of interest.

d. Do you believe the sample of 33 respondents is representative of the population? Explain.

e. In a second designed study, the researchers investigated whether the link between gift price and level of appreciation is stronger for birthday gift-givers than for birthday gift-receivers. The participants were randomly assigned to play the role of gift-giver or gift-receiver. Assume that the sample consists of 50 individuals. Use a random number generator to randomly assign 25 individuals to play the gift-receiver role and 25 to play the gift-giver role.

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a. What is the variable of interest to the researchers?

b. Is the variable of part a quantitative or qualitative?

c. Is the data set analyzed a population or a sample? Explain.

d. How did the NBI obtain the data for the study?

Explain how population and variables differ?

Customer orders at a department store. A department store receives customer orders through its call center and website. These orders, as well as any special orders received in the stores are forwarded to a distribution center where workers pull the items on the orders from inventory, pack them, and prepare the necessary paperwork for the shipping company that will pick up the packages and deliver them to the customers. In order to monitor the subprocess of pulling the items from inventory, one order is checked every 15 minutes to determine whether the worker has pulled the correct item.

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