EC10910 - STATISTICS FOR ECONOMISTS

Module Identifier

EC10910

Module Title

STATISTICS FOR ECONOMISTS

Academic Year

2004/2005

Co-ordinator

Mr Alan Jones

Semester

Semester 2

Mutually Exclusive

AC10410

Course delivery

Lecture

22 Hours

Seminars / Tutorials

6 Hours

Assessment

Assessment Type	Assessment Length/Details	Proportion
Semester Exam	1.5 Hours	80%
Semester Assessment		20%

Learning outcomes

On completion of the module the students will:

Know how to display data in figures such as pie-charts, bar charts, and histograms.
Understand the purpose of measures of central tendency, dispersion, and association and be able to calculate them.
Understand the concept of a probability distribution and have a basic understanding of the meaning and use of the following distributions: normal, t, F, chi-squared;
Know the meaning of a sample and be able to calculate and draw inferences from sample statistics.
Have an understanding of time-series data.
Understand the principles of estimation: bias and efficiency
Be able to produce and test hypotheses.
Understand the idea of correlation.
Be able to interpret output from spreadsheets and other computer packages.

Brief description

Statistical analysis is an important part of the economist's toolkit and this module looks at introductory ideas. No previous knowledge of the subject is assumed.

Aims

To give students an introduction to descriptive and inferential statistics and to help them understand the purpose and meaning of statistics. The module is designed to make students familiar with the various statistics used in economics and will give them a preliminary introduction to statistical computer programs including spreadsheets.

Content

1. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS. Diagrammatic representations of data. Averaging. Measuring spread. Weighted averages.
2. PROBABILITY. Basic ideas. Addition and multiplication rules. Tree diagrams. Success/Fail experiments. Binomial distributions. Normal distribution.
3. STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE. Idea of significance. Tests concerning means. Tests concerning variance. Comparisons. Goodness of fit; contingency tables.
4. RELATIONSHIPS. Scatter diagrams, correlation and lines of best fit. Dependent and independent variables. Variation over time.

Reading Lists

Books
** Supplementary Text
Swift, Louise. (2001.) Quantitative methods for business, management and finance /Louise Swift. Palgrave 0333920759
Keller, Gerald and Warrack, Brian (c2000.) Statistics for management and economics. Duxbury 0534368301 :
McClave, Benson and Sincich (1998) Statistics for Business and Economics 8/e. Pearson 013028766
** Consult For Futher Information
Curwin, Jon. (1996.) Quantitative methods for business decisions /Jon Curwin and Roger Slater. International Thomson Business Press 1861520271
Curwin, Jon (2000.) Improve your maths :a refresher course /Jon Curwin and Roger Slater. Business Press 1861525516

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 4