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For the past two years, the vending machine in the Walton College of Business has charged $1.00 for a bottled soft drink. During this time, company records indicate that an average of μ = 371 soft drinks were sold each week. In September, the company increased the price to $1.25 a can. An analyst randomly samples units sold figures for 8 weeks during the current semester and she finds that after the price increase, units sold per week are as follows: 300, 321, 319, 316, 400, 425, 200, and 221 soft drinks. The standard deviation for these eight weeks is 27 soft drinks and alpha = .05.
Dr. Cary Deck, an economics professor, argues that the price increase will result in soft drinks being categorized as a ‘snob good’ by consumers, whereby the increase in price is linked to an increase in demand. On the other hand, common sense suggests that an increase in price will be negatively associated with demand.
If you wanted to compare these perspectives (i.e., a price increase results in an increase in demand vs. price increase results in a decrease in demand), what would be the appropriate set of hypotheses?
H 0 : µ = 371
H 1 : µ ≠ 371