Use This Information to Answer the Following Questions -Refer to the Table Above

question 32

Essay

Use this information to answer the following questions.
The following time series represent the total population of the United States,in thousands,over the last 12 years.
$$\begin{array} { | c | c | } \hline \text { Year } & \text { Population (in 000s) } \\\hline 1991 & 253,493 \\\hline 1992 & 256,894 \\\hline 1993 & 260,255 \\\hline 1994 & 263,436 \\\hline 1995 & 266,557 \\\hline 1996 & 269,667 \\\hline 1997 & 272,912 \\\hline 1998 & 276,115 \\\hline 1999 & 279,295 \\\hline 2000 & 282,434 \\\hline 2001 & 285,545 \\\hline 2002 & 288,600 \\\hline\end{array}$$
-Refer to the table above.
a.Use exponential smoothing with a smoothing constant of 0.5 to forecast the population of the United States in 2003.
b.Use exponential smoothing with a smoothing constant of 0.8 to forecast the population of the United States in 2003.
c.Which of the two methods provides a more accurate forecast based on the MAD criterion?