Question: In an opinion poll four weeks before the American presidential election in 2008 \(1000\) randomly sampled citizens in the state of Campaignia (the 51^st state) were asked about their favorite candidate in the upcoming election – Barack Obama or John McCain.

(a) 56% of the respondents stated that they intended to vote for Obama and 44% that they were to vote for McCain. Is it fair to say that a majority of the citizens in Campaignia supported Obama four weeks before the election? Employ the 95% significance level.

(b) Three weeks later, a week before ethe election, another opinion poll in Campaignia showed that 53% of the citizens intended to vote for Obama whereas 47% supported McCain. According to these two opinion polls, is it fair to say that the support for Obama significantly decreased as the election approached? Employ the 95% significance level.

(c) In the latter poll the respondents were also asked about their financial situation, level of education, ethnicity, and party identification (that is, their subjective attachment to a specific political party). Financial situation was measured as economic assets in US dollars minus debts in US dollars. Level of education was operationalized as total number of years in full time education. Concerning ethnicity the respondent were asked to state which group he/she belonged to (eg. Latin American, Afro American, and so on). Lastly, party identification was measured using 7 response alternatives: strong democrat, weak democrat, independent democrat, independent, independent republican, weak republican, strong republican. To which level of measurement does each of the four variables belong? Briefly justify your answer.

(d) Regarding the level of education there was no difference between the mean and the median value across the individuals. However, when looking at the variable financial situation it turned out that the mean value was considerably higher than the median value. Given this information which conclusion can you draw about the distribution of each of these variables? Briefly justify your answer.