1,

a) better, the more samples can make the function fit pratcal problem better.

b) worse, since the number of observations is small, the more flexiable statistical method will result in the more over-fit function.

c) better, the more samples enable the flexiable method to fit the data better.

d) worse, due to the variance is high, with a fixed number of samples, the more flexible the statistical method is, the more function will overfit. 

2,

a) regression, n: 500 firms in US; p: profit, number of employees, industry.

b) classification, n: 20 products that were previously launched; p: price, marketing budget, competition price, ten other variables.

c) regression, n: weekly data for all of 2012; p: % change in the US market, the % change in British market, the % change in the German market.

solutions to ISLR