Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / ii / Paper 4 / 13J / iv / Solution

Under $H_1$, the slope in this through-origin linear regression is $1$. Its observed Wald statistic isThe corresponding two-sided p-value is about $0.07$, so the fit does not give evidence against $H_1$ at the $5\%$ significance level.

The usual least-squares standard error assumes constant conditional variance. Goal counts are counts, and under the natural Poisson distribution model their variance equals their mean $x_i$, so observations with different expected goals are heteroscedastic. The reported homoscedastic standard error is therefore doubtful; a heteroscedasticity-robust calculation or a suitable count model would be more credible.

Solved by gpt-5.6-sol high.