City Planner: Critics argue that converting downtown commercial streets into pedestrian-only zones harms local retail economies by restricting vehicular access. However, a comprehensive review of pedestrian-only zones established nationwide over the last two decades demonstrates otherwise. Researchers analyzed the financial trajectories of the retail businesses currently operating within these zones. After controlling for regional economic trends and inflation, the data shows that these businesses experienced, on average, a 30 percent increase in both their profit margins and absolute net profits following the transition. Clearly, pedestrianizing commercial streets profoundly enhances retail profitability.
Which one of the following most accurately describes a flaw in the city planner's reasoning?
- AIt takes for granted that a substantial increase in the proportion of profit guarantees an equivalent increase in the absolute number of sales transactions.
- BIt ignores the possibility that the observed increase in net profits was caused by broad regional economic improvements rather than the pedestrianization policy.
- It bases a generalization about the economic impact of a policy on a sample that systematically omits entities that failed to survive that policy.Cevap
- DIt relies on an illicit shift in the definition of the term 'profitability' between the premise outlining the researchers' data and the final conclusion.
- EIt inappropriately infers that a policy will benefit all commercial retail sectors merely because it has been shown to benefit a certain proportion of the businesses studied.