The accompanying data indicate the number of mergers that took place in an industry over a 19-year period.
Year Mergers Year Mergers Year Mergers
1 23 8 64 14 150
2 23 9 47 15 165
3 31 10 96 16 192
4 23 11 125 17 210
5 32 12 140 18 250
6 32 13 160 19 300
7 42
a) Fit a least squares trend line to the merger data.
b) What type of trend (linear or curved) might best fit to this time series?
c) Compute the forecast for year 20 based on the trend (linear or curved) that best fits the data?