UNIVERSITY OF GHANA

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WEEKEND MBA: SECOND SEMESTER EXAMINATIONS: 2013/2014

UGBS 602: RESEARCH METHODS (3 CREDITS)

INSTRUCTIONS:

ATTEMPT THE COMPULSORY QUESTION AND ANY OTHER ONE IN SECTION A, AND
ANSWER ANY TWO QUESTIONS IN SECTION B. ANSWER BRIEFLY BUT CLEARLY EACH
PART OF A QUESTION. STATISTICAL TABLES AND FORMULAE ARE PROVIDED. USE A
SEPARATE ANSWER BOOKLET FOR EACH SECTION.

TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS (3 HOURS)

SECTION A
ANSWER THE COMPULSORY QUESTION 1 AND ONE OTHER IN THIS SECTION

QUESTION 1 (COMPULSORY)
The Ghana Labour Commission is endeavouring to determine if the salaries of employees (S)
are influenced by their age (A), experience (E), position (P), education (ED), gender (G) and the
type of market (M) in which the person works. The commission performs both correlation and
regression analyses on a sample of data in order to establish association and causality. Use the
correlation matrix and the regression output to answer the questions that follow:

S A E P ED G M
S 1
A 0.75 1
E 0.88 0.88 1
P 0.70 0.71 0.8 1
ED 0.78 0.58 0.67 0.31 1
G -0.43 -0.23 -0.38 -0.37 -0.29 1
M 0.03 -0.13 -0.15 -0.11 -0.02 0.06 1

a) Which 2 pairs of variables are least correlated with the outcome variable? (2 marks)
b) Which 3 pairs of variables are mostly multicollinear? (3 marks)
c) Which 2 pairs of variables are least correlated? (2 marks)
d) From the matrix, identify 2 very good predictors? (1 mark)

Page 1 of 5 EXAMINERS: DR RICHARD BOATENG AND DR KWAKU OHENE-ASARE

 Regression Statistics
Multiple R -
R Square A
Adjusted R2 B
Std. Error 3533.83
Observations C

ANOVA
df SS MS F Sig.F
Regression - 12947.74 - D 0.00
Residual 143 1785.77 -
Total - -

Coeff.s Std. Error t Stat P-value Lower 95.0% Upper 95.0% VIF
Intercept 36813.00 2224.00 16.55 0.00 … …
A -82.01 67.28 F 0.23 G H 4.56
E 530.30 96.17 5.51 0.00 … … 9.97
P 409.20 E 3.60 0.01 … … 4.00
ED 754.09 89.51 8.42 0.00 … … 2.61
G -1574.1 743.90 -2.14 0.03 … … 1.27
M 4823.00 1131.00 4.26 0.00 … … 1.05

e) Find the missing values, represented by letters from A to H. (11 marks)

f) Interpret the coefficient of determination (2 marks)
g) Specify the regression model for all variables. (3 marks)
h) Test if the coefficient of experience is statistically significant. (3 marks)
i) Using only the variance inflation factor (VIF), which one of the pairs of variables selected
to be multicollinear could be deleted from the regression? (3 marks)

QUESTION 2
a. In Ghana, poor mothers generally have babies with lower birth-weight than those
not poor. While the average birth-weight of babies born in Ghana is about 3,300g,
the average birth-weight of babies born to women living in poverty is at most
2,800g. Recently, Korle Bu introduced an innovative pre-natal care programme to
reduce the number of low birth-weight babies. In 2013, 25 mothers, all living in
poverty participated in the programme. Data drawn from hospital records showed
that the average birth-weight of babies born to these poor women was 3,075g with
a standard deviation of 500g.
i. Formulate the null and alternative (2 marks)
ii. Compute the value of the test statistic? (2 marks)

Page 2 of 5 EXAMINERS: DR RICHARD BOATENG AND DR KWAKU OHENE-ASARE

 iii. What is the critical value of the test statistic? (2 marks)
iv. Estimate the p-value and use it to decide (2 marks)
v. Has the programme been effective at improving the birth-weight of
babies born to poor women? Is the difference due to chance? (2 marks)

b. Two fuel additives are being tested to determine their effect on gasoline mileage. A
sample of cars was tested with additive 1 and another sample of cars was tested
with additive 2. The following data show the miles per gallon obtained with the two
additives. Use α=0.05 to determine whether the median for additive 1 significantly
outperforms that of additive 2 in effecting gasoline mileage.
Additive 1 17 15 19 16 12 18 13
Additive 2 21 17 21 21 22 18 19 20 14

i. State the null hypothesis and the alternate hypothesis. (1 mark)

ii. What is the critical value of the test statistic? (2 marks)
iii. What is the computed value of the test statistic? (4 marks)
iv. List 2 assumptions underlying the distribution of the differences in this test?
(1 mark)
v. Does additive 2 significantly underperforms additive. (2 marks)

QUESTION 3
a. The Government Statistician in Ghana would like to determine the difference in the
prices of a plate of specialized vegetarian rice in four different restaurants in Accra–
KFC, Papaye, Regal and Timeout. Use α=0.05 to test whether there is a significant
difference between the mean prices of a plate of specialized vegetarian rice at in the
four different restaurants.

KFC Papaye Regal Timeout

42 30 30 36
18 18 48 12
36 24 48 18
36 12 42 30

i. Formulate the null and alternative hypotheses. (2 marks)

ii. Compute the value of the test statistic. (8 marks)
iii. Calculate the critical value of the test statistic (2 marks)
iv. Conclude if a statistically significant difference exist between the mean prices
of a plate of specialized vegetarian rice in the four different restaurants. If so,
is the difference due to chance? (2 marks)
v. Which restaurant charges the cheapest price? Justify numerically. (1 mark)

Page 3 of 5 EXAMINERS: DR RICHARD BOATENG AND DR KWAKU OHENE-ASARE

 b. State whether each of the following questions provided categorical or numerical
data and indicate the measurement scale appropriate for each.
i. What marks do you need to have to get A or B+? (1 mark)
ii. Which food do you prefer? (1 mark)
iii. What is the capital of Ghana? (1 mark)
iv. How much do you sell the kenkey? (1 mark)
v. What is your position in the company? (1 mark)

SOME USEFUL FORMULAE

̂
𝛽 𝑀𝑆𝑅
1. 𝑡𝑑𝑓 = 𝑡𝑁−𝐾−1,𝛼 2. 𝑡𝛽̂ = 𝑆.𝐸.(𝛽̂) 3. 𝐹 = 𝑀𝑆𝐸

4. 𝐹𝐾,𝑁−𝐾−1,𝛼 5. 𝑁 − 1 = 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑑𝑓

𝑅𝑆𝑆 𝐸𝑆𝑆 𝑅𝑆𝑆

6. 𝑀𝑆𝑅 = 7. 𝑀𝑆𝐸 = 8. 𝑅2 =
𝐾 𝑁−𝐾−1 𝑇𝑆𝑆

9. 𝑀𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑅 = √𝑅2 10. 𝛽̂𝑗 ± 𝑡𝑛−𝐾−1,𝛼 ∗ 𝑆. 𝐸.(𝛽̂)

𝑁−1 𝑆𝑆𝐺
11. 𝑅̅2 = 1 − (1 − 𝑅2 ) 𝑁−𝐾−1 12. 𝑀𝑆𝐺 = 𝐾−1

𝑆𝑆𝑊 𝑀𝑆𝐺
13. 𝑀𝑆𝑊 = 𝑁−𝐾 14. 𝐹 = 𝑀𝑆𝑊

Page 4 of 5 EXAMINERS: DR RICHARD BOATENG AND DR KWAKU OHENE-ASARE

 𝐾
∑𝐾
𝑖 (𝑛𝑖 𝑥̅ 𝑖 )
15. 𝑥̿ = 16. 𝑆𝑆𝐺 = ∑ 𝑛𝑖 (𝑥̅𝑖 − 𝑥̿ )2
𝑁 𝑖=1

𝐾 𝑛𝑖
2
17. 𝑆𝑆𝑊 = ∑ ∑ (𝑥𝑖𝑗 − 𝑥̅𝑖 )
𝑖=1 𝑗=1

∑𝑑
18. 𝐹𝐾−1,𝑁−𝐾,𝛼 19. 𝑑̅ = 𝑛

∑(𝑑−𝑑̅ )2 𝑑̅
20. 𝑆𝑑 = √ 21. 𝑡 = 𝑆
𝑛−1 𝑑 / √𝑛

𝑋̅−𝜇
22. 𝑡𝑑𝑓 = 𝑡𝑁−1,𝛼 23. 𝑡 = 𝑆
⁄
√𝑛

𝑛1 (𝑛1 +1) 𝑛2 (𝑛2 +1)

24. 𝑈1 = 𝑅1 − 25. 𝑈2 = 𝑅2 −
2 2

𝑛(𝑛+1)
26. 𝑈1 + 𝑈2 = 𝑛1 × 𝑛2 27. ∑(𝑅1 + 𝑅2 ) = 2

28. 𝑈𝑛1,𝑛2,𝛼

Page 5 of 5 EXAMINERS: DR RICHARD BOATENG AND DR KWAKU OHENE-ASARE