STAT 3130: Assignment 1

Question 1:
1.1 The target population is statisticians. The sampling frame is the list of
7
gathered email addresses of 12,053 statisticians. The sampling unit is
the statisticians who responded. The observation unit is statisticians.
1.1 The target population is the Landerss readers. The sampling frame is
8
anyone who happened to read her column and sees the question. The
sampling unit is self-selected readers who chose to respond to her
column. The observation unit is her readers.
1.2 The target population is students in pubic schools. The sampling frame
0
is students with parental permission and access to the Internet who
sees the survey. The sampling unit is the students who respond. The
observation unit is the students.
Question 2:
1.2 The survey describes the general American populations feelings
7
towards the federal government. The target population is the American
population. The sampled population is Americans who follow CNN. The
survey concludes that a majority (7 out of 10) of Americans is angry
about the direction of the current presidential administration,
suggesting dissatisfaction with the Democrat-dominated Congress. I do
not think the observation is justified. The survey included
approximately 1000 interviews with Americans via telephone, but failed
to report the total number of people they tried to contact, raising the
concern of nonresponse. The survey also made a judgment that all
Americans have a landline or a cellphone, leading to the possibility of
under-coverage via exclusion of the groups that may be traveling or in
a socioeconomic situation where they dont have either.
Question 3:
2. a
98+102+154+ 133+ 190+175
u=
=14 2
1
6
b i)

1
E [ ybar 1 ] = ( 884 +854+ 842+ 812+ 892+862+850+820 )=85 2
8
1
1
1
E [ yba r 2 ] =( 812 )
+ ( 862 )
+ ( 884 )
=85 5
4
2
4

()

()

ii)

V ( ybar 1 )=( 726586 )( 852 ) =68 2

iii
)

V ( ybar 2 )=( 731722 ) ( 855 )2=697

Bias ( ybar 1 )=852852=0
Bias ( ybar 2 ) =855852=3

iv
)

MSE ( ybar 1 ) =682( 0 )2 =682

()

MSE ( ybar 2 ) =697 (3 ) =688

We would select the first sampling plan, because ideally we
want an estimator that would be both unbiased and precise,
though neither a low variance or bias indicates a good

estimator. So instead, we look to the MSE to test the

accuracy (lower MSE indicates higher accuracy).

Question 4:
(a)
i. The approach would mitigate cost and correct the fundamental flaw of
the traditional approach, which overlooked poor people, minorities, and
people who moved often. Sampling rather than trying to interview the
10% of non-respondents would reduce cost from 4.8BN to 900MIL.
ii. The approach sacrifice high-resolution data needed to redraw House
districts for the sake of cost. Rural residents and minorities can still be
undercounted in the non-response follow-up phrase.
iii. One of the opinions about the 1990 census was the minority
representation was different in the South/West and Northeast/ Midwest,
because of the differing housing pattern and ethnic/racial selfidentification. Perhaps in sampling the non-respondents, undercoverage will be further minimized by taking into account of different
regional qualities. If regions are broken down small enough and
sampling is designed specifically for each, the variations between
different areas can be minimized, and sampling of the 10% of nonrespondents may result in a smaller degree of under-coverage.
(b)
I think to reduce partiality; supplementing census with sampling is
better than counts based on attempted census. While neither can truly
represent every whole person, sampling seeks to cover everyone as
fully as possible.