Task: This assessment is an individual task in which the student is required to write a report on a topic included in this paper.

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment requires you to understand: the population & sample, identify the variable type, produce and interpret descriptive and inferential statistics, and employ various graphical techniques to conduct quantitative research.

PROBLEM

Suppose Researcher A is assigned a research task to examine United States (US) companies’ financial performance and response status to Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) questionnaire in 2022. The researcher randomly chose 450 companies and collected the companies’ information from DataStream Database. Please see the data file (Assignment 1 dataset_2023.xlsx).

• What is the population Researcher A is interested in? (1 mark)

• Identify the names and types of variables in the (1 mark)

• Use Microsoft Excel to conduct and present the appropriate graphic and descriptive results on each of the following variables: Industry, Revenue, and Direct GHG Emissions, interpret and analyze these descriptive results, and prepare a summary report. (3 marks)

• Suppose Researcher A also conducted the same research in 2019, the proportion of companies that answered CDP questionnaire was 0.72 in 2019. The researcher would like to know if this proportion of companies answering CDP questionnaire has increased. You are required to: (4 marks)
  • Establish the null and alternative hypotheses
  • Identify the appropriate test
  • Produce the test results using Microsoft Excel
  • Write a short report based on your analysis of results

• Suppose Researcher A also conducted the same research in 2019, and found that the average return on assets (ROA) was 0.06 in 2019. The researcher would like to know whether the average ROA has changed. You are required to: (4 marks)
  • Establish the null and alternative hypotheses
  • Identify the appropriate test
  • Produce the test results using Microsoft Excel
  • Write a short report based on your analysis of results

• Suppose Researcher A wants to examine whether the average profitability (measured as ROA) of Industry 1 is significantly different from that of Industry 2. The researcher conducted analysis based on a sample of companies from Industry 1 and Industry 2 in the data file.

(Note: You need to replace Industry 1 and Industry 2 with real Industry first, for example, Communication Services and Energy).

You are required to:                                                                                         (7 Marks)

• Identify population(s) Researcher A is interested in
• Based on the above subsample you selected, produce results using Microsoft Excel, conduct your analyses following detailed steps for HYPOTHESIS TESTING AND ESTIMATION method and summarize your results in a report. That is, you need to establish null and alternative hypotheses, identify the appropriate tests, produce results, interpret and analyse your results based on appropriate statistics.