Assignment title: Information
Written Assignment: Assignment 3 (weight 30%)
This assignment consist of case study/report writing and short questions/calculations
Q1: Case study/report writing (20%):
In recent years Australian export and import prices have shown dramatic trends as shown by
export and import price indices. Export and import price indices measure the overall change
in the prices of goods and services exported or imported respectively. The prices of all goods
and services do not change at the same rate. A price index thus summarizes their movements
by averaging over them. A price index assumes a value of unity, or 100, in some reference
period. Table 1 presents quarterly export and import price indices for 2000 to 2015 (see, the
attached file entitled Assignment 2 ABS-Data.xlsx). Your task is to write a report (about
1500 words):
(a) Convert (using Excel or manually) quarterly export and import price indices data into
yearly (Hint: first add quarterly data for each year and then divide it by four because
there are four quarters in a year);
(b) Discuss which is the most appropriate graph to present this statistics and then present
it in a graph(s);
(c) Discuss emerging trends in Australian export and import prices in the last few years;
(d) Explain why this trend may have occurred in recent years (Hints: for this part you
need to look at Australian trade data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
site (www.abs.gov.au) or do some research on the net as to what kind of goods and
services Australia exports and imports and what has happened to their exports and
imports in recent times).
(e) What would be the implications of this trend for Australian business? Discuss.
Note: For this question you are required to present your answer in a report form. Your
written report should have a cover page with your name, student number and an abstract
of your answers (4-5 lines). In the next pages, you should have an introduction (5-10
lines), main body of the report (where you discuss/answer all five questions analyticallyabout 2 pages) and then a conclusion of your report (10-15 lines). Finally, you should
have a reference section if you have taken material or idea from any published or
unpublished sources.
Each question is worth 4 marks.
Q2: Short questions (10%):
Rising price level, as measured by the rate of inflation, reduces people purchasing power. For
this reason, investors tend to invest in high return shares. Table 2 provides a dataset from 1995-
2015 for both All-Ordinary Index (Y) and inflation (X). See the attached file containing data on
All-Ordinary Index and inflation.
Based on this dataset answer the following questions:(a) Calculate covariance between X and Y, and the coefficient of correlations
(b) What does these statistics tell you about the relationship between All-Ordinary Index
and inflation?
(c) Determine the least square line.
(d) Determine the coefficient of determination R2
Each question is worth 4 marks.