HELLENIC OPEN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

MASTERS DEGREE PROGRAMME IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Module: ADVANCED QUANTITATIVE METHODS FOR MANAGERS
(MBA60)
Academic Year: 2014-15
2nd Written Assignment (WA2)

The Ministry of Social Affairs investigates the behaviour of age of retired people, their
monthly pension and the various kinds of pensions.
The attached file PENSIONS_2.XLS contains the following data of a sample of 300
retired persons selected randomly from all sectors (public sector, private sector,
freelancers, agricultural sector, etc):

monthly pension (in )

pension category (Age pensions of elderly retired people, Death pensions

such as for widows, etc. and Disabled pensions for persons with disabilities
who cannot work)

age group (up to 65, 66 to 75, and older than 75)

Using the above data you are asked to investigate the following questions:

Subject 1 (20%)
1.1 Set up a 99% confidence interval estimate of the population mean of the monthly
pensions in Greece.
1.2 An IMF economist insists that due to fiscal problems, the average monthly
pension should be restricted to 880. On the basis of your results, do you think
that the IMF economist has reasons to complain about monthly pensions?
Explain.
1.3 Does the population of the monthly pensions have to be normally distributed
here? Explain.
1.4 Suppose that you used a 95% confidence interval estimate. How would your
answers to 1.1 and 1.2 be affected?

Subject 2 (25%)
The IMF-EU-ECB (Troika) requires that total monthly expenditure for pensions must
be less than 2.4 billions to avoid budget deficits. Given that there are 2,656,855
pensioners in total in our country, does Greece satisfy the Troika requirements?
2.1 State the null and the alternative Hypotheses
2.2 Test the hypothesis at = 5%

HELLENIC OPEN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
MASTERS DEGREE PROGRAMME IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

2.3 On the basis of your results, are Troika requirements satisfied as far as the total
monthly expenditure for pensions is concerned?
2.4 Set up a 95% confidence interval estimate of the total monthly expenditure for
pensions.

Subject 3 (15%)
A very important issue regarding the viability of our pension system is the age of
retired people.
3.1 Find an unbiased point estimate of the proportion of pensioners who belong to
the < = 65 age group.
3.2. Find a 95% confidence interval for the proportion of pensioners who belong to
the < = 65 age group.
3.3 According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority, the total number of pensioners is
2,656,855. Set up a 95% confidence interval estimate of the population number
of pensioners who belong to the < = 65 age group.

Subject 4 (25%)
Do the data support the hypothesis that the percentage composition of age groups is
the same for all pension categories (age pensions, death pensions and disabled
pensions)?
4.1 State the null and the alternative Hypotheses
4.2 Test the hypothesis at = 1%
4.3 What is your conclusion?

Subject 5 (15%)
A final question, for which the Secretary of Social Affairs asks for an answer, is if
there is any difference between the average monthly pensions of two specific groups
of pensioners: Disabled and Death. Estimate the 95% confidence interval of the
difference of the two mean monthly pensions using the relevant data in the attached
file. Explain your findings.
2

Note: Use the Z statistic with standard error of (Mean1-Mean2) = (s1 /n1 + s2 /n2)

1/2

HELLENIC OPEN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
MASTERS DEGREE PROGRAMME IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Assignment guidelines

It is important that the coursework reflects your knowledge rather than it being
simply an accumulation of information.
The assignment should be well structured and easy to read.
The assignment should clearly present all aspects and perspectives of the
subject area, i.e.:
o
efficiently develop all necessary elements
o
refer to actual case studies or statistics if required
o
present reasonable argumentation
o
omit irrelevant material
All questions are compulsory. The assignment, including possible diagrams,
tables, references etc., should not exceed 5000 words.
All subjects are marked equivalently.
The assignment is due on 27/01/15. Please note that no assignment will be
acceptable after this date as the electronic submission system
automatically locks at 23:55 on the last day of submission.
You should submit your assignment via http://study.eap.gr using your
username and password.
You may use any of the following file formats:
o
Microsoft Word or / and Excel 97-2003 (*.doc / *.xls).
o
Microsoft Word or / and Excel Open XML (*.docx / *.xlsx)
Other document formats or read only file formats such as Portable Document
Format (*.pdf) are not acceptable formats for the submission of your assignment.
Please pay attention to the proper naming of your assignment. The file should be
named as follows: Surname-Initial-WAnumber-YourClass. For example, if
your name is Peter Drucker, you are sending in your 3rd assignment, and you
are in ATH1 Class, then you should name your file as follows: Drucker-P-WA3ATH1. Assignments that fail to comply with this requirement will receive a lower
mark in the presentation grade.
Copying is considered cheating and is not acceptable in any form. Copying
large parts or whole paragraphs of text found in any of the sources used
for an assignment (printed books, academic articles, or electronic media of
any kind) is totally unacceptable. It is considered plagiarism and leads to a
severe penalty for the student(s) involved. Students should cite all sources
from which they take data, ideas or words, whether quoted directly or
paraphrased.
Good luck!!