Is it possible to predict the annual number of business bankruptcies by the number of firm births (business starts) in the United States? The following data published by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, are pairs of the number of business bankruptcies (1000s) and the number of firm births (10,000s) for a six-year period. Use these data to develop the equation of the regression model to predict the number of business bankruptcies by the number of firm births. Discuss the meaning of the slope.

Business Bankruptcies Firm Births

(1000) (10,000)

34.3 ..............58.1

35.0 ..............55.4

38.5 ..............57.0

40.1 ..............58.5

35.5 ..............57.4

37.9 ..............58.0