FIN10002: Financial Statistics
Semester 1, 2018 Assessment 2: Report
Word limit: 1500 (+/- 10%; not including Appendix or Executive Summary) Weighting: 25%
Due date: 11pm Tuesday, 15th May 2018
Assessment overview
For this assessment, you need to produce a report by generating responses to six tasks presented below. For some of these sections, you will need to use Excel to generate statistical output (statistical analyses and graphs). The report should be presented in the form of a business report to a senior manager who cannot be assumed to have any particular knowledge of statistical methods. Microsoft Word and Excel should be used to complete this assessment. Your statistical calculations should be carried out using Excel only. You will submit the Excel file and both a pdf and word version of the report as softcopies and the report as a hardcopy.
Assessment details
You will need to download the Excel dataset ‘Major Assignment data Taxation 2014.xlsx' from Blackboard. The data set contains taxation data for a location in Australia and is supplied by the ATO. The data is based upon the taxations returns of the individuals in a particular area. There are 2338 lodgments for the year 2014 in this data set and eight variables as follows:
IdNo:istheidentifiernumbersetbytheATOinnoparticularorder
Gender:0=male,1=female
Age-range:ageofpersonlodgingreturninanintervalof5years.Seetable1
in the file.
Occ_Code:Occupationcode–seetable2infile.
Lodgment_Method:Returnledgedeitherbyagentorself
T ot_inc_amt: T otal income or loss – salary/wages or another source ($)
WRE_Deductions:Work-relatedDeductions($)
T axable_Income: T axable income ($)
FIN10002 S1 2018 Major Assignment
1
You will use this data set to generate responses to the following six tasks.
1. Selectarandomsample
Select a random sample of size 60 from the given 2338 lodgments in the Taxation lodgment data set for 2014. You will use this sample data to complete tasks 2 to 6.
2. Descriptivestatistics
Use data summary methods to describe the returns in your sample using seven variables – items 2 to 8 above. (Note: Do NOT do Id No) Use an appropriate graphical and summary statistical technique, chosen according to the type of variable (note that less appropriate/inappropriate techniques will receive fewer/no marks). Choose your techniques from:
Tabular Techniques: frequency tables and grouped frequency tables Summary Statistics: mode, median, mean, standard deviation, range, coefficient of variation and interquartile range
Graphical Techniques: pie chart, bar graph, histogram, frequency polygon. (See topics 1 and 2)
Do not draw an ogive curve, stem plot, or a box plot in this assignment and do not draw 3-D graphs.
Foranominaloranordinalvariabledrawagraphandpresenta frequency table in percentages.
Foraratiooraninterval,variabledrawagraphandasummary statistics table, including summary statistics appropriate to the type of distribution only.
Trytousevariationindrawinggraphse.g.piechart/barchartor histogram/polygon.
Donotdrawtwodifferentgraphsforthesamevariable.Youcan draw the same type of graph for two variables.
Donotincludeanyinformationthatyouwillnotincludeinyour discussion such as kurtosis.
Displayanddescribeonevariableatatime.
3. Confidenceintervals
Estimate the following quantities, using 95% confidence intervals. Explain the meaning of your confidence intervals.
1. Theaveragesalary/wagesamountforagentlodgedreturnsonly 2. Theaveragework-relateddeductionsforallsamplelodgments.
Compare both intervals with their respective true means by calculating the actual population mean for the full 2338 lodgments, and comparing the true population mean to the sample mean and confidence interval (note: it is not usual to do this, so you are asked to do this for the purpose of this assignment).
FIN10002 S1 2018 Major Assignment 2
Your confidence interval should start with ‘We are 95% confident that...”. This section should take half a page or less.
NB: Please make sure you provide sufficient information in the appendix for your confidence interval calculations to be replicated, so they can be checked.
4. Hypothesistesting
Itisoftenfeltthattheoccupationofprofessionalsearnsmoreon average than technicians and trades workers. Investigate this contention by carrying out an appropriate hypothesis test.
ItisoftenfeltthattheaveragetaxableIncome,differsformalesand females. Use gender for this test.
Only report a non-technical explanation of your methodology and your findings in the main section of the report. The computations and output should be placed in an appendix, including the test statistic, p-value and degrees of freedom. This should take half a page or less.
5. Correlationandregression
In this section, you will investigate the relationship between the Taxable income and the age range. Using these two variables (taxable income and age range) develop a regression model to predict average taxable income from the age of the lodger. Make sure that you undertake a full regression analysis, with appropriate discussion and include:
ascattergramandabriefdiscussion
anestimateofthelinearregressionmodel
thecoefficientsofcorrelationanddetermination
atestofthehypothesisthatthereisnolinearrelationship
between age range and taxable income for each lodgment.
Ensure your scattergram includes a line of best fit. Also, make sure you describe the relationship between the variables using R and R-square and interpret the slope, coefficients and the results of the hypothesis test. Use a significance level of 0.05.
6. Conclusion
Provide a brief, concise summary of all of your findings and briefly mention any limitations in your findings.
Make sure you do not give tables or graphs here.
FIN10002 S1 2018 Major Assignment 3
Presentation
The report should be presented in the form of a business report to a senior manager who cannot be assumed to have any particular knowledge of statistical methods.
Make your report informative but concise and use a non-technical style. Do not just quote statistics or analysis results but explain what they mean. In general, do not include in the report formulae, calculations, definitions of statistical terms or discussions on how graphs are constructed. Where appropriate these may be included in the appendices.
It is important that the values which have been calculated are correctly analysed, discussed and interpreted, and that a written description of the main features of the tables and graphs that have been constructed is included. The emphasis in this assignment is on interpretation and analysis, not just the computation of statistics and construction of graphs. It will be assumed that all computations have been correctly performed and that graphs have been properly constructed. Nevertheless, marks will be deducted if these are inaccurate or incorrect.
The presentation is an important feature of a business report. The guide to the presentation that follows gives a general outline to report writing.
Executive Summary
Reportonlythehighlightsofthefindings.
EnticeanExecutivetoreadon.
Essentiallyalivelysummaryofthemainconclusions.
Nolongerthanonepage;thisisnotcountedinthewordcountand
must be on a separate page from the rest of the report.
Introduction
Statethepurposeofthereporti.e.whatyouwilldiscussinthereport
OutlinethecontentsoftheReport
Provideabriefdescriptionofthemethodology
Describethesourceofthedataandstateitslocationinthereport.
Thisshouldcontaininformationaboutwhatweexpecttoreadinthe project. This should take about half a page.
Analysis
Containsathoroughyetnon-technicaldescriptionofallthefindings (graphs and tables will be included only where they help this discussion).
DetailstheresultsthatwerehighlightedintheExecutiveSummary
Donotincludeanycalculationsherebutincludeappropriategraphs
and tables which are needed to support your discussions.
FIN10002 S1 2018 Major Assignment 4
Conclusion
Reportthefindingsandresultsofyourwork.
Essentiallyanexpansionoftheexecutivesummarywrittenfromthe
point of view that the Executive Summary has not been read.
Endwithadiscussionofthelimitationsofyouranalysis(e.g.reference
to sample size if small, or comment on the data if it is old).
Appendices
Mustbereferredtointhemainbodyofthereport.
Mustcontainyourselectionofrandomnumbersandrelated
random data.
Includetherawdata,chartsandtablesthatarenotessential,but
support the ANALYSIS section.
IncludeyourEXCELoutputfordescriptivestatistics,confidence
intervals, hypothesis testing and regression.
Includeanyotherrelevantcalculations.
Please make sure the information in the appendix is sufficient for all calculations to be replicated, so they can be checked e.g. if you include the output for your confidence intervals, please show how this output was used to calculate the confidence intervals.
Graphs must be in the Main body along with relevant tables and discussion.Graphs kept only in the appendices will not score any marks for graphs.
Keep the appendices to a moderate size. Marks are only given for the report itself. Your Excel work confirmation will be checked in the Appendices. The emphasis in this assignment is on interpretation and analysis, not just the computation of statistics and construction of graphs. Make your report informative but concise and use a non-technical style. Do not just quote statistics or results of analyses but explain what they mean. In general, do not include formulae, calculations, definitions of statistical terms, or discussions on how graphs are constructed. Where appropriate these may be included in the appendices.
Submission details
This assessment will be submitted in both hardcopy and softcopy.
The hardcopy (just the report) will be submitted in the Assignment Box for this unit on Level 11 of building BA.
Your name and tutor’s name on the front cover.
Please do not use plastic covers.
The softcopy will be submitted via Blackboard in the Major Assignment submission. You are to submit both the report in pdf format and the excel file.
Make sure that your student id and name is in the footer of the assignment. You will need to attach an Assignment coversheet with the assignment.
FIN10002 S1 2018 Major Assignment 5
Assessment criteria
Marks for this assessment are broken down as follows:
Presentation8%-includeacoverpage,avoidtechnicallanguage, within 1500 word limit (excluding executive summary and appendix), minimal spelling, grammatical or syntactical errors, clear expression, clear tables/graphs, information is provided in the correct section, includes introduction and conclusion.
Executivesummary8%-includesmainfindings/highlightsonly,well written, entices the reader to read on.
Introduction4%-summarisesthesourceofthedata,theaimofthe report, the variables to be examined, and the processes used.
Descriptivestatistics24%-appropriategraphicalandsummary statistics according to the type of variable, and the type of distribution.
Confidenceintervals12%-correctcalculationandexpression,and includes comparison to population mean.
Hypothesistests12%-correctcalculation,analysisandcorrect interpretation.
Correlationandregression16%-correctscattergram;presentsand interprets correlation coefficient, coefficient of determination, regression equation and hypothesis test.
Conclusionandlimitations8%-allfindingssummarised,limitation(s) discussed, well expressed and well structured
AppendixwithExceloutputs8%-includesallcasesintherandom sample, output showing the creation of classes for graphs (where relevant), output and calculations for confidence intervals and hypothesis tests, the output for regression analysis; output is sufficient for calculations to be replicated thereby allowing the results to be checked.
FIN10002 S1 2018 Major Assignment