Assume that you are a research analyst in a business firm. Your team leader has given you a research

task to investigate whether the Private Gross Fixed Capital Formation (on Machinery and

Equipment) in Australia is a good predictor of the Gross Domestic Production of the country.

Using the link given below, download the data on the following two variables from the Australian

Bureau of Statistics (ABS) website and answer the questions 1-6.

Data l..s@.nsf/viewcontent?readform&view=ProductsbyCatalogue&

Action=expandwithheader&Num=1

(ABS Catalogue Number: 52: National Accounts>>5206.0 Australian National Accounts: National

Income, Expenditure and Product. >> data downloads >> Table 3. Expenditure on Gross Domestic

Product (GDP), Current prices Excel sheet)> Data1 sheet

Variables:

(A) PRIVATE GROSS FIXED CAPITAL FORMATION - MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT -

Total (original) in $ Millions; - quarterly data (Series ID A2302532K) from March 1986

to December 2020.

(B) GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT: (original) in $ Millions; - quarterly data (Series ID

A2302467A) from March 1986 to December 2020.

1. Download data (in excel format) for PRIVATE GROSS FIXED CAPITAL FORMATION -

MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT (GFCF) and GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP) for

the period March 1986 to December 2020 from the above website to carry out Tasks 2-6.

Display a screenshot of first 10 rows of the dataset.

2. Using appropriate graphical descriptive techniques (in Excel):

(a) describe the movements of two data series GFCF and GDP.

(b) analyse the relationship between the two variables, GFCF and GDP.

3. Using appropriate numerical descriptive methods (in Excel):

(a) summarize the above two data series, GFCF and GDP.

(b) comment on the strength and the direction of the relationship between GFCF and GDP.

4. Using the Simple Linear Regression technique,

(a) develop a model to explain the relationship between GFCF and GDP. Explain the reason for

your choice of the dependent and independent variables of your model.

(b) estimate the model you proposed in 4(a) using Excel and display the output.

(c) interpret the estimated coefficients you obtained in 4(b).

5. Applying appropriate statistical techniques,

(a) test whether the linear relationship between Gross Fixed Capital Formation - Machinery and

the equipment and Gross Domestic Product you estimated in Q4 is significant (use a = 0.05).

(Hint: display 6 steps process in relation to this test).

(b) assess the fitness of the estimated model you have estimated in Q4.

6. Based on all your answers above, need a summary report about your findings to hand over to

your team leader