Question

Identifying the type of experiment. Brief descriptions of a number of experiments are given next. Determine whether each is observational or designed and explain your reasoning.

a. An economist obtains the unemployment rate and gross state product for a sample of states over the past 10 years, with the objective of examining the relationship between the unemployment rate and the gross state product by census region.

b. A manager in a paper production facility installs one of three incentive programs in each of nine plants to determine the effect of each program on productivity.

c. A marketer of personal computers runs ads in each of four national publications for one quarter and keeps track of the number of sales that are attributable to each publication’s ad.

d. An electric utility engages a consultant to monitor the discharge from its smokestack on a monthly basis over a 1-year period to relate the level of sulfur dioxide in the discharge to the load on the facility’s generators.

e. Intrastate trucking rates are compared before and after governmental deregulation of prices changed, with the comparison also taking into account distance of haul, goods hauled, and the price of diesel fuel.

Short answer

e. The experiment is an observational experiment.

Step-by-step solution

Given Information

Intrastate trucking rates are compared before and after governmental deregulation.

 Step 2: Concept

The researcher draws observations regarding the treatments in an observational experiment.

Identifying the type of experiment

e.

Interstate trucking rates are compared before and after governmental deregulation of prices changed. This comparison also considers the distance of haul, goods hauled, and the price of diesel fuel. Specifications of the treatment are not controllable.

Therefore, the experiment is an observational experiment.