The news-magazine The Economist regularly publishes data on the so called Big Mac index and exchange rates between countries. The data for 30 countries from the April 29, 2000 issue is listed below:

Price ofActual Exchange Rate

CountryCurrencyBig Macper U.S. dollar

IndonesiaRupiah14,5007,945

ItalyLira4,5002,088

South KoreaWon3,0001,108

ChilePeso1,260514

SpainPeseta375179

HungaryForint339279

JapanYen294106

TaiwanDollar7030.6

ThailandBaht5538.0

Czech Rep.Crown54.3739.1

RussiaRuble39.5028.5

DenmarkCrown24.758.04

SwedenCrown24.08.84

MexicoPeso20.99.41

FranceFranc18.57.07

IsraelShekel14.54.05

ChinaYuan9.908.28

South AfricaRand9.06.72

SwitzerlandFranc5.901.70

PolandZloty5.504.30

GermanyMark4.992.11

MalaysiaDollar4.523.80

New ZealandDollar3.402.01

SingaporeDollar3.201.70

BrazilReal2.951.79

CanadaDollar2.851.47

AustraliaDollar2.591.68

ArgentinaPeso2.501.00

BritainPound1.900.63

United StatesDollar2.51

The concept of purchasing power parity or PPP ("the idea that similar foreign and domestic goods ... should have the same price in terms of the same currency," Abel, A. and B. Bernanke, Macroeconomics, 4thedition, Boston: Addison Wesley, 476) suggests that the ratio of the Big Mac priced in the local currency to the U.S. dollar price should equal the exchange rate between the two countries.

a)Enter the data into your regression analysis program, EViews. Calculate the predicted exchange rate per U.S. dollar by dividing the price of a Big Mac in local currency by the U.S. price of a Big Mac ($2.51).(15 marks)

b)Using EViews, run a regression of the actual exchange rate on the predicted exchange rate. If purchasing power parity held, what would you expect the slope and the intercept of the regression to be? Is the value of the slope and the intercept "far" from the values you would expect to hold under PPP?

(15 marks)

(c)Plot the actual exchange rate against the predicted exchange rate. Include the 45 degree line in your graph. Which observations might cause the slope and the intercept to differ from zero and one?