Florida has adopted a new sentencing law to increase the penalties for drugrelated crimes. The state legislative research bureau is interested in knowing whether courts are upholding this law. The dependent variable that the bureau uses is the average number of months in prison that first-time drug offenders receive if convicted for sale of drugs. The independent variables are X₁, a trend variable coded 1 in the first month of the study and increasing by 1 each month thereafter; X₂, a short-term impact variable coded 0 before the new law and coded 1 afterward; and X₃, a long-term impact variable coded 0 before the law and as a countervariable (1, 2, 3, . . .) afterward. A regression shows the following results:

Interpret the slopes and coefficient of determination. Test the slopes for significance, and explain what this equation says about the impact of the new sentencing law.

Transcribed Image Text:

Sb₁ = 3.15 Sb₂ Ŷ = 24.52.13X₁ 2.36 Sb₂ = = + 27.4X₂ + 2.15X3 4.53 Sylx = 5.4 R² = .88 N = 75