Regarding the Decision to Use Either a Directional or Nondirectional

question 51

Multiple Choice

Regarding the decision to use either a directional or nondirectional alternative hypothesis, most researchers

• A) prefer to use directional because of the increase in statistical power.
• B) use nondirectional alternative hypotheses because this allows you to reject the null if your finding occurs in the opposite direction from your prediction. That is, it allows you to discover something new.
• C) typically use nondirectional alternative hypotheses if the significance level is .05 and directional if it is .01.
• D) have no convention at all in practice because there are pros and cons to each choice.

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Definitions:

P-value

The probability that observed data could have occurred by chance under a null hypothesis. It's used in hypothesis testing to determine statistical significance.

Empirical Economics

The collection and use of data to test economic theories.

Regression Analysis

A statistical technique used to estimate the relationships among variables, often used for prediction and forecasting.

P-value

A statistical metric that helps determine the significance of results, indicating the probability of observing the given data if the null hypothesis is true.