6. A study investigated the relationship between audit delay (Delay), the length of time from a company's fiscal yearend to the date of the auditor's report, and variables that describe the client and the auditor. Some of the independent variables that were included in this study follow: (12 marks total)

Industry: A dummy variable coded 1 if the firm was an industrial company or if the firm was a bank, savings and loan, or insurance company

Public: A dummy variable coded 1 if the company was traded on an organized exchange or over the counter; otherwise coded 0

Quality: A measure of overall quality of internal controls, as judged by the auditor, on a fivepoint scale ranging from "virtually none" (1) to "excellent" (5)

Finished: A measure ranging from 1 to 4, as judged by the auditor, where 1 indicates "all work performed subsequent to year end" and 4 indicates "most work performed prior to yearend."

A sample of 40 companies provided the data that is available on the course portal.

a. Develop the estimated regression equation using all of the independent variables. (3 marks)

b. Did the estimated regression equation developed in part (a) provide a good fit? Explain. (3 marks) g

c. Develop a scatter diagram showing Delay as a function of Finished. What does this scatter diagram indicate about the relationship between Delay and Finished? (3 marks)

d. On the basis of your observations about the relationship between Delay and Finished, develop an alternative estimated regression equation to the one developed in (a) to explain as much of the variability in Delay as possible. (3 marks)