Lester Hollar is vice president for human resources for a large manufacturing company. In recent years, he has noticed an increase in absenteeism that he thinks is related to the general health of the employees. Four years ago, in an attempt to improve the situation, he began a fitness program in which employees exercise during their lunch hour. To evaluate the program, he selected a random sample of eight participants and found the number of days each was absent in the 6 months before the exercise program began and in the 6 months following the exercise program. Following are the results.


Employee Before After
1 8 7
2 7 3
3 8 2
4 8 4
5 6 5
6 7 10
7 6 4
8 8 9
Click here for the Excel Data File

At the 0.050 significance level, can he conclude that the number of absences has declined?

a. What are the null and alternate hypotheses?

multiple choice 1
H0: μBefore − μAfter = μd ≤ 0; H1: μd > 0
H0: μBefore − μAfter = μd ≤ 0; H1: μd < 0
H0: μBefore − μAfter = μd ≥ 0; H1: μd > 0


b. Compute the test statistic. (Round your answer to 3 decimal places.)



c. Compute the p-value. (Round your answer to 4 decimal places.)



d. What is your decision regarding the null hypothesis?