Do customers who have debit cards tend to use ATMs differently from those who do not have debit cards?.
Students are to maximize the use of charts and minimize the use of tables (other than in the appendices) in the body of their report. Actual numbers from the Excel or SPSS output must be used in the report text and explained.
• References in the body of the report should be made to the more-detailed material in the appendices.
• Work to include relevant analysis beyond what is required and for intuition if your report contains insights about the problem that are not obvious from the questions asked.
Conclusions
• Summarize all of your findings.
• Discuss the limitations of your study, what questions remain unanswered, and make suggestions to find the answer for unanswered issues in the project (and for follow-on work); for example, you may consider questions like these: Do the findings make sense? What else would you like to know about the sample data? What other data would you collect if you could? What other analyses would you want to do then?
Appendices
Relevant tables, charts not used in the report body, statistical details, and Excel or SPSS output are to be presented in the appendices.
• The appendices should be annotated to explain the included chart or Excel or SPSS output.
• Statistical jargon may be used in the appendices.
The report has the following constraints:
1. A one page introduction section.
2. Full report may be up to ten pages (double-spaced) not including the Appendices
3. Annotated appendices of unlimited length.
4. Please include additional explanations of your findings in plain English, as if it is to be presented to your boss who is not interested in statistical details.
5. You may use Excel or SPSS statistical software to do the analysis.
6. Please keep in mind that your report is to present your own thinking in your own words. It should not be written like answers to homework problems. How well the report is written will be a part of its grading.
7. I would suggest starting with the Appendices and including all relevant Excel or SPSS output along with explanation in statistical terms underneath each graph or result, then write the rest of the report.
COURSE PROJECT
CASE: Century National Bank
Assume that you work in the Planning Department of the Century National Bank and report to Ms. Lamberg. You will need to do some data analysis and prepare a short written report. Remember, Mr. Selig is the president of the bank, so you will want to ensure that your report is complete and accurate.
Century National Bank has offices in several cities in the Midwest and the southeastern part of the United States. Mr. Dan Selig, president and CEO, would like to know the characteristics of his checking account customers. What is the balance of a typical customer? How many other bank services do the checking account customers use? Do the customers use the ATM service and, if so, how often? What about debit cards? Who uses them, and how often are they used?
To better understand the customers, Mr. Selig asked Ms. Wendy Lamberg, director of planning, to select a sample of customers and prepare a report. To begin, she has appointed a team from her staff.
You are the head of the team and responsible for preparing a report. You select a random sample of 60 customers. In addition to the balance in each account at the end of last month, you determine: (1) the number of ATM (automatic teller machine) transactions in the last month; (2) the number of other bank services (a savings account, a certificate of deposit, etc.) the customer uses; (3) whether the customer has a debit card (this is a relatively new bank service in which charges are made directly to the customers account); and (4) whether or not interest is paid on the checking account. The sample includes customers from the branches in Cincinnati, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia; Louisville, Kentucky; and Erie, Pennsylvania.
1. Classify each variable in the dataset by the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio) and by the type of variable (Categorical or Numerical, then discrete or continuous). [Chapter 1]
2. Develop a frequency distribution and histogram that portray the checking balances. What is the balance of the typical customer? Do many customers have more than $2,000 in their accounts? [Chapters 2 and 3]
3. Determine the mean and median of the checking account balances. Compare the mean and the median balances of the four branches. Is there a difference among the branches? (Be sure to explain the difference between the mean and the median in your report.) [Chapter 3]
4. Determine the range and standard deviation of the checking account balances. What do the first and third quartiles show? Because Mr. Selig does not deal with statistics daily, include a brief description and interpretation of the standard deviation and other measures. [Chapter 3]
5. Is it reasonable that the distribution of checking account balances approximates a normal distribution? Determine the mean and the standard deviation for the sample of 60 customers.
Compare the actual distribution with the theoretical distribution (i.e., empirical rule) by evaluating the actual versus the theoretical properties. Cite some specific examples and comment on your findings. [Chapter 6]
6. When Mr. Selig took over as president of Century several years ago, the use of debit cards was just beginning. He would like to an update on the use of these cards. Develop a 95 percent confidence interval for the proportion of customers using these cards. On the basis of the confidence interval, is it reasonable to conclude that more than half of the customers use a debit card? Mr. Selig would also like to know the mean account balances for all balances in all banks with a 95 percent level of confidence. Interpret the results. [Chapter 8]
7. With many other options available, customers no longer let their money sit in a checking account. For many years the mean checking balance has been $1,600. Does the sample data indicate that the mean account balance has declined from this value? [Chapter 9]
8. Recent years have also seen an increase in the use of ATM machines. When Mr. Selig took over the bank, the mean number of transactions per month per customer was 8; now he believes it has increased to more than 10. In fact, the advertising agency that prepares TV commercials for Century would like to use this on a new commercial being designed. Is there sufficient evidence to conclude that the mean number of transactions per customer is more than 10 per month? Could the advertising agency say the mean is more than 9 per month? [Chapter 9]
9. The bank has branch offices in four different cities: Cincinnati, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia; Louisville, Kentucky; and Erie, Pennsylvania. Mr. Selig would like to know whether there is a difference in the mean checking account balances among the four branches. Specifically, he would like to know if there are differences in the mean checking account balances between (1) Cincinnati and Atlanta (2) Atlanta and Louisville, and (3) Atlanta and Erie. Use interval estimates and assume known and equal variances of 311667. [Chapter 10]
10. Mr. Selig is also interested in the banks ATMs. Do customers who have debit cards tend to use ATMs differently from those who do not have debit cards? Is there a difference in ATM use by those with checking accounts that pay interest versus those that do not? Prepare a report for Mr. Selig answering these questions. [Chapter 10]
11. Develop a regression model to predict Checking Account Balances from the number of ATM transactions in the month (ATM). Discuss the model and its strength on the basis of indicators presented in Chapter 14 of your textbook and/or corresponding lecture notes. Does it seem logical that Checking Account Balances could be predicted by number of ATM transactions in the month? [Chapter 14]
12. Develop a regression model to predict Checking Account Balances from the number of other bank services used (Services). Examine the regression output. Is this model stronger than the model in Question 11 above in predicting the amount of Checking Account Balances? Explain why, using techniques presented in Chapter 14 of your textbook and/or corresponding lecture notes. [Chapter 14]
