00914 - Statistics (O-Z)

Learning outcomes

The course aims to offer students the basic tools for a quantitative reading of collective phenomena.

At the end of the course the students know fundamental concepts of statistics useful for the analysis of simple datasets. In particular, the main learning goal is to familiarize students with tools for choosing between synthetic measures, graphics, measures of relationships between two variables and with the fundamental tools of probability and statistics.

Course contents

Introduction. Statistical surveys. Descriptive statistics vs inferential statistics. Types of statistical variables. Levels of measurements.

1) Univariate descriptive statistics

- frequency distributions. Graphical representations., means and quantiles, variability measures

2) Bivariate descriptive statistics

- contingency tables, bivariate frequency distributions, marginal, joint and conditional distributions; statistical independence, association indices, covariance&correlation and linear regression

3) Probability

Random events, uncertainty, axioms of Probability, conditional probability and Bayes theorem. Discrete and continuous random variables, probability distributions and density function, Binomial and Normal r.v., independence, sequence of random variables and Central Limit theorem.

4) Inference

Statistical models, population and sampling. Simple random samples and parametric inference. Parameters estimation and confidence intervals. Testing statistical hypotheses: normal and binomial models.

Readings/Bibliography

S. Borra e A. Di Ciaccio (2008) Statistica. Metodologie per le Scienze Economiche e Sociali (IV ed.), McGraw-Hill.
P. Newbold, W.L. Carlson e B. Thorne (2022) Statistics for Business and Economics, Global Edition.

 

Teaching material (lecture notes, exsercizes) is available online on Virtuale.

Teaching methods

During the lessons both theoretical problems and exercises will be discussed. Teaching material (lecture notes, exsercizes) is available online on Virtuale.

Group work (max 6 students) will also be proposed to the participants; it concerns the creation of a survey on a topic of your choice (construction of the questionnaire, creation of a dataset, analysis of data, writing a report) with a bonus of max 3/30 in the partial exams.

Assessment methods

The exam is the same for attending/non-attending students. During the test it is possible to consult the teaching material uploaded online or use the recommended textbooks.

The exam aims to assess the achievement of teaching objectives relating to knowledge of basic statistical tools. The purpose of the exam is to verify that the following objectives have been achieved:
i) Knowledge of the statistical tools presented during lectures;
ii) Ability to use such tools for data analysis;
iii) Ability to interpret the phenomenon being studied and to carry out decision-making processes in the light of the obtained results.
The exam consists of a written test with 3 exercises (1 descriptive, 1 probability and 1 inference), to be carried out in about 1:45h.

The exam can also be supported by two partial tests, the first at the end of descriptive statistics, the second at the end of the course, both lasting about 45 min.

The first partial test consists of 1 exercise of descriptive statistics, while the second one regard 2 exercises, one of probability and one of inference.

Teaching tools

Slides, lecture notes, exercises are available on Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Alessandro Baldi Antognini