Statistics I (Introduction to Statistics for Business and Economics)

The purpose of the course is to give students in the field of economics, a conceptual introduction to the field of statistics and its many applications. The course is applications oriented and presented with the needs of the nonmathematician in mind, since the only mathematical prerequisite is knowledge of basic algebra. The volume of statistical information available today is too large. However, the growth of computer science techniques and processes in the last years, grew rapidly our ability to process this information quickly, accurately and cheaply. This, combined with the parallel improvement of statistical methods and techniques, resulted in an increasing use of Statistics in Economic Theory and its applications. This course is an introduction to Statistics for Economists and aims to present the basic techniques of the statistical analysis of a problem. It starts with the basic concepts of descriptive statistics (Tabular and Graphical Presentations, Numerical Measures). When the numerical information is only a fraction of the total information of interest, then the purpose of statistical analysis is the generalization of partial information (Statistical Inference). This generalization involves uncertainty, measured by probability. Thus, the course continues with an introduction to the basic principles of the probability theory and probability distributions of random variables. Finally, we examine the fundamental concepts of sampling and sampling distributions.

Objectives

Prerequisites

Syllabus

Data and Statistics, Descriptive Statistics: Tabular and Graphical Presentations, Descriptive Statistics: Numerical Measures, Introduction to Probability, Discrete Probability Distributions, Continuous Probability Distributions, Sampling and Sampling Distributions.