MANHATTANVILLE COLLEGE

Department of Economics, Finance & Management

ECONOMIC and BUSINESS STATISTICS

Fall Semester, 2005

Revised September 29, 2005

 

Professor William C. Perkins

Telephone: (914)-323-5149; E-mail: perkinsw@mville.edu

Office: Reid Hall 400-A

Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 3 to 5:30 pm and Wednesday 11am to 12 noon.

 

Course Description: Economic statistics involves the collection, description, display, analysis and interpretation of data.  Graphical, tabular and numerical methods of data summarization are covered; Chebyshev’s Theorem and the empirical rule are also used.

After an introduction to probability, various discrete and continuous probability functions are applied to a variety of problems.  Primary focus is on the normal and t-distributions and their applications.  Sampling, the central limit theorem, sampling distributions,  interval estimation, hypothesis testing, and the correlation coefficient are also covered.

 

Required Textbook: Statistics for Business and Economics (9th edition) by D.Anderson, D.Sweeney and R.Williams, (listed as AS&W below), Thompson Publishing, 2005.

 

Course Requirements: The final grade is based on three exam scores and grades on designated homework assignments. The low exam score will count 20% and the other two exam scores will be worth 30% each; the graded homework will comprise the other 20%.  It will be announced in class when homework will be collected for a grade, but to receive maximum credit for a graded assignment, homework must be turned in on time.  Late homework will generally be accepted one class period late, but at the cost of a 10 point penalty.  Homework submitted later than this will not be accepted. Attendance is important and will be taken regularly. 

 

Week of:                                             Topic                                                Assignment           

                                              

August 31                                    Data and Statistics                                  AS&W chapter 1

(a)   descriptive statistics                           exercises 5, 11,

(b)   statistical inference                            15 & 17.

(c)    statistical applications

(d)   data and sources

 

September 7            Tabular & Graphical Methods of Data Display         AS&W chapter 2

(a)   summarizing qualitative data                              exercises 5, 17,

(b)   summarizing quantitative data                            22, 43.

(c)    the stem and leaf display

 

 

September 14 & 21        Numerical Methods of Summarizing Data          AS& W chapter 3

(a)   measures of location and variability                    and

(b)   measures of relative location                       exercises 11, 21,

(c)    detection of outliers                                     31, 32, 33, 42,

(d)   five number summary and box plot             49.

(e)    covariance and the correlation coefficient

                                                     

September 28                  An Introduction to Probability                            AS&W chapter 4

(a)   statistical experiments                                  (omit section 4.5)

(b)   tree diagrams and counting rules                 exercises 4, 19,

(c)    the sample space and the Venn Diagram     21, 29, 31, 35, 37

(d)   methods of assigning probabilities               & 51.

(e)    events and their probabilities

(f)     principles of probability

 

October 5                         Probability (continued) and review

 

October 12                                   FIRST EXAM     

 

 October 14                          Discrete Distributions                                 AS&W chapter 5

(a)   discrete random variables                             (omit section 5.6)

(b)   the discrete uniform distribution                   exercises 5, 9, 13,

(c)    the binomial distribution                              29, & 31.

(d)   applications of the Binomial distribution

 

October 19                     Continuous Distributions                                     AS&W chapter 6

(a)   the continuous uniform distribution               (omit section 6.4)

(b)   the normal distribution                                   exercises 5, 9, 11,

                                                                                                                  17, 19, 21, 23, 25.

 

October 26                 Sampling and Sampling Distributions                    AS&W chapter 7

(a)   simple random sampling                                  exercises 5, 17,

(b)   point estimation of mean, proportion              31, 39, 47 & 53.

(c)    central limit theorem

(d)   sampling distribution of mean and proportion        

(e)    other sampling techniques

 

November 9                         SECOND EXAM

 

November 16                           Interval Estimation                                     AS&W chapter 8

(a)   confidence interval for mean and proportion    exercises 7, 18,

(b)   determination of sample size                             21, 27, 37 & 42.

(c)    t-distribution

 

November 23              THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

 

November 30                   Hypothesis Testing                                         AS&W chapter 9

                            (a) Null & Alternative Hypothesis                    (omit sections 9.7 & 9.8)

                            (b) Type I & Type II Errors                        exercises 3, 15, 27, 39 & 49.

(d)   One & Two-Tail Tests of mean and proportion

(e)    P-value approach to hypothesis testing

(f)     Hypothesis Testing and decision making

 

December 7                  Other Hypothesis Tests                                   AS&W section 10.3

(a)   matched samples                                      and appendix 14.2;

(b)   the correlation coefficient                 exercises to be announced.

 

 

 

December 9-13                   FINAL EXAM WEEK*

 *Time of exam to be posted by the Manhattanville College Registrar’s Office.

 

 

 

 

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