Module Identifier EC10910  
Module Title STATISTICS FOR ECONOMISTS  
Academic Year 2006/2007  
Co-ordinator Mr Alan Jones  
Semester Semester 2  
Other staff Mrs Glenda Roberts, Mr Alan Jones  
Mutually Exclusive AC10410  
Course delivery Lecture   18 Hours. (18 x 1 hour lectures)  
  Seminars / Tutorials   2 Hours. (2 x 1 hour tutorials)  
  Practical   3 Hours. (3 x 1 hour computer practicals)  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Exam1.5 Hours (written examination)  80%
Semester Assessment continuous assessment  20%
Supplementary Exam2 Hours Written exam  100%

Learning outcomes

On completion of the module, a student should be able to:
1. Summarise and present a data set;
2. Calculate various summary measures for grouped and ungrouped data;
3. Construct and interpret statistical diagrams;
4. Fit a straight line to suitable data;
5. Calculate and interpret correlations;
6. Describe and illustrate basic probability concepts;
7. Use statistical tables;
8. Carry out and interpret the results of basic statistical tests;
9. Use and interpret the output from statistical software.

Brief description

This module introduces statistical methods and their application in Economics, together with the use of statistical computer software. The software package MINITAB is used in practical classes.

Aims

To introduce students to statistical methods and to appreciate their importance in Economics.

Content

1. STATISTICAL DIAGRAMS: pie charts; simple multiple and stacked barcharts; histograms; cumulative polygons; stem and leaf diagrams
2. SUMMARY MEASURES: minimum, maximum, median, quartiles, percentiles; five number summaries and box-and-whisker plots; mean and mode; variance and standard deviation; calculations from grouped data.
3. SCATTERPLOTS, REGRESSION AND CORRELATION : scatterplots; the idea of a line of best fit; importance of the mean point; least squares regression; the existence of two regression lines for bivariate data; correlation and its measurement; the (product moment) correlation coefficient; Spearman'r rank correlation.
4. PROBABILITY: definition and properties; unions and intersections; mutually exclusive events; the addition law; independent events; the multiplication law; equally likely outcomes; conditional probability; Bayes? theorem; the Central Limit Theorem; the Normal distribution.
5. STATISTICAL INFERENCE: basic ideas; informal inference based on 'rwo standard deviations?; formal p-values; goodness of fit; the idea of a confidence interval.
6. TIME SERIES DATA: plotting time series; the idea of a moving average; smoothing.

The computer package MINITAB: introduction, producing and interpreting diagrams and tables, producing and interpreting summary measures; regression and correlation; output from formal procedures such as z-, t- chi-squared- and F-tests.

Reading Lists

Books
** Supplementary Text
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 0013028766
Swift, Louise. (2001.) Quantitative methods for business, management and finance /Louise Swift. Palgrave 0333920759
** Consult For Futher Information
Curwin, Jon (2000.) Improve your maths :a refresher course /Jon Curwin and Roger Slater. Business Press 1861525516
Curwin, Jon. (1996.) Quantitative methods for business decisions /Jon Curwin and Roger Slater. International Thomson Business Press 1861520271

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 4