30588 - Elements Of Statistics

Learning outcomes

The course aims to offer students the basic tools for a quantitative reading of economic and social phenomena At the end of the course the students know fundamental concepts of statistics useful for the analysis of simple datasets. In particular, students: -will acquire knowledge of the basic concepts of statistical methodology, both as regards the collection phase and that of data analysis and will be able to carry on a data analysis through the use of a personal computer.

Course contents

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS TOOLS: Types of variables. Statistical units, population and sample. Data collection and organization. Data matrices and frequency distributions. Graphical representations. Mean values: mode, median, quartiles, arithmetic mean. Main variability measures and concentration. Statistical indices. Introduction to bivariate analysis. The relationship among two variables: association. The relationship among two variables: covariance and linear correlation. The simple linear regression model.

PROBABILITY: random events and sample space. Axioms of probability. Conditional probability. Density and probability functions of a random variable; expected value and variance of a random variable. Bernoulli and Binomial distributions. Normal distribution and t-Student distribution.

STATISTICAL INFERENCE: statistical tests for mean and frequency

Readings/Bibliography

S. Borra, A. Di Ciaccio. Statistica – metodologie per le scienze economiche e sociali, terza edizione, McGraw-Hill, Milano, 2014

Lessons on IOL

Teaching methods

Lessons, exercises and case study

Assessment methods

Written examination consisting in exercises, multiple-choice items and open-ended items. During written examinations, students have the possibility to bring a a paper with main formulas  download from IOL.

The examination rules apply for both students attending and not attending classes.

The oral exam is non-compulsory and can be done after passing the written exam in the same exam session. The overall grade is expressed in thirtieths and takes into account the outcome of the written test and the oral one: the evaluation obtained in the written test can increase or decrease to more than 3/30.

Teaching tools

slidesi, exercises and data

Office hours

See the website of Stefania Mignani