According to the University of Nevada Center for Logistics Management, 6% of all mer-
chandise sold in the United States gets returned (BusinessWeek, January 1 5, 2007). A
Houston department store sampled 80 items sold in January and found that 12 of the items
were returned.
a. Construct a point estimate of the proportion of items returned for the population of
sales transactions at the Houston store.
b. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the porportion of returns at the Houston store.
c. Is the proportion of returns at the Houston store significantly different from the returns
for the nation as a whole? Provide statistical support for your answer.

Respuesta :

Answer:

a) The point estimate of the proportion of items returned for the population of

sales transactions at the Houston store = 12/80 = 0.15

b) The 95% confidence interval for the proportion of returns at the Houston store = [0.0718 < p < 0.2282].

c) Yes.

We set an hypothesis and construct a test statistics. The test statistics result gives us:

Z calculated  = 2.2545, and this gives us the p-value = 0.0121. We assumed 95% confident interval. Hence, the level of significance (α) = 5%. Conclusively, since the p-value ==> 0.0121 is less than (α) = 5%, the test is significant. Hence, the proportion of returns at the Houston store is significantly different from the returns  for the nation as a whole.

Step-by-step explanation:

a) Point estimate of the proportion = number of returned items/ total items sold = 12/80 = 0.15.

b) By formula of confident interval:

CI(95%) = p ± Z*[tex]\sqrt{\frac{p*(1-p)}{n} } = 0.15 \pm 1.96 *\sqrt{\frac{0.15*(1-0.15)}{80} }[/tex],

CI(95%) = [0.0718 < p < 0.2282]

c) The hypothesis:

[tex]H_{0}[/tex]: The proportion of returns at the Houston store is not significantly different from the returns  for the nation as a whole.

[tex]H_{a}[/tex]: The proportion of returns at the Houston store is significantly different from the returns  for the nation as a whole.

The test statistics:

Z = [tex]\frac{\hat{p} - p_{0}}{\sqrt{\frac{p*(1-p)}{n} }}[/tex], where [tex]p_{0}[/tex] is the proportion of nation returns.

Z calculated  = 2.2545, and this gives us the p-value = 0.0121. We assumed 95% confident interval. Hence, the level of significance (α) = 5%. Conclusively, since the p-value ==> 0.0121 is less than (α) = 5%, the test is significant. Hence, the proportion of returns at the Houston store is significantly different from the returns  for the nation as a whole.