ECON 2B03 Lecture Notes - Wtwo, Eqal, Decision Rule
8 Dec 2013
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Statistics: is a branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, presentation, and interpretation of data. The field can be divided into two broad categories: Descriptive statistics: which seeks to describe general characteristics of a set of data. Inferential statistics: which seeks to draw inferences about (unknown) features of a population based on a (known) sample drawn from a population. Broadly speaking, statistics provide a rigors framework for describing, analyzing, and drawing on the basis of data. Mainly due to uncertainty (we cannot know with certainity many things in life, even though they clearly exist) In any statistical study, we analyze info/data obtained from individuals. Individuals can be people, animals, households, plants, and or objects of interest. A variable is any characteristic of an individual. A variable varies among individuals (as opposed to constants: ex. The distribution of a variable tells us what values the variables takes and how often/likely it takes these values.
