1.  Purpose

This assessment task gives students an opportunity to critically analyse a series of real- world data and present their findings in the form of a business report. Such a task simulates the requirements of many business graduate positions within both the public and private sectors. By completing this task, students are expected to develop their critical and creative thinking  skills,  presentation  and  written   articulation  of  quantitative  arguments,   and collaborative skills.

2.   General Instructions to Students

.    The Draft Task is available on Page 3. Read all instructions in this document carefully.

.    The Draft Task carries 5% of the total assessment in ECON10005.

.    The draft task has a word limit of 700 words.

o No penalty is applied to submissions with a word count within 10% of the word limit.

o Graphs, tables, equations and appendices do not count toward the word limit, provided they do not house substantive explanation, analysis, or discussion.

.    All submissions are checked for plagiarism and originality. Students should be familiar with the University’s academic integrity policy, availablehere.

o Explanation, analysis, or discussion generated by AI software (including ChatGPT) is not permitted in this assessment.

.    Students should rely only on the material discussed in Lectures 1–6 and Tutorials 1–3 of ECON10005 in preparing their report. All statistical analyses should be conducted  using Microsoft Excel.

o Students are not required (nor would it be advantageous) to consult external materials or provide a reference list.

.    Students may use theEd Discussion Boardto clarify questions about this assignment.

o No student should either answer or ask a question on the Ed Discussion Board, upload part of their assignment (including calculations and written work), or discuss their exact approach to the assignment.

3.   Submission Guidelines

.    Assignment Submission

o Submissions must be made using the link on Canvas before 2pm on Friday, 08

September (Week 7).

. Assignments only need to be submitted by one group member.

. Late submissions will receive no feedback and a mark of zero.

. Issues about formatting or incorrect/incomplete versions of submitted assignments are not considered valid grounds for an extension.

o Students should refer to the Subject Guide (available on Canvas) for the extension policy applicable to this assignment.

.    Assignment Formatting

o Assignments should include a cover page denoting the Student ID numbers of all group members, the tutorial time and location, and the tutor’s name.

o Assignments must be typed and compiled into a single PDF document before submission.

. Handwritten  assignments  will  not  be  marked,  and  any  handwritten additions   (including    graphs   or    equations)   to    otherwise    typed assignments will be ignored.

4.   Group Formation

.    This task may be completed in groups of up to 4 (four) students.

.    All students in a group must be enrolled in the same tutorial.

.    Groups must be registered using the link on Canvas by 2pm on Friday, 01 September (Week 6).

o Late registrations are not accepted. Students who did not register their group before this time must submit independently written, individual assignments.

.    Groups formed to complete the Draft Task must remain the same for the Final Task.

o Members may not be omitted from or added to groups between the tasks unless written permission is obtained from the tutor of the group’s tutorial.

.    All members of the same group will receive the same mark.

.    Serious issues pertaining to collaboration between group members  should be raised with a group’s tutor with sufficient time before the relevant deadline for action to be taken. Members of the same group should exchange contact details and have an open and honest dialogue about their goals, skills and availability as soon as the group is formed.

5.   The Task

Suppose that your group is leading the financial division of a prominent insurance firm. Your firm is prepared to offer insurance to members of the public for the cost of receiving certain healthcare services.1

Your company’s executive staff members have asked you to write a report analysing the cost of your insurance offering. To aid you in this task, the executive provided a random sample of n = 1004 obseTvations  of customer data,  including the total value of their insurance claims (the cost). This report will guide their strategic direction into the future and will inform future insurance pricing decisions.

Specifically, the executive is eager to gain insight into the following matters:

Firstly

.    The distribution of the cost of insurance, and the other demographic characteristics, across the whole customer base, namely

o a table including the sample size, mean, median, standard deviation, range, interquartile range, minimum, maximum and 90th  percentile of the cost, age, number of children, and BMI of the customers;

o at least one graphical representation of the cost and BMI;

o an   approximately   300-word    explanation   of   the   distributions    and   any interesting/noteworthy features.

Secondly

Any similarities/differences in the distribution of insurance cost across particular demographic characteristics. Accordingly, please choose the two most important of the following options, justifying your choice in approximately 50 words and then presenting an approximate 75-word discussion for each of your two choices (75 + 75 = 150 words):

o the differences in central tendency, variability and skewness of cost across smoking status, including at least one visual aid;

o the differences in central tendency, variability and skewness of cost across gender, including at least one visual aid;

o the differences in central tendency, variability and skewness of cost across regions of residence, including at least one graphical aid.

Finally