Monash University Handbook 2010 Undergraduate - Unit

Synopsis

An introduction to descriptive statistics -- the collection, organisation, presentation and analysis of grouped and ungrouped data using measures of location and dispersion; the construction of index numbers, with application to share price indices and the CPI; analysis of relationships between variables using simple and multiple regression, with applications to forecasting; main ideas of probability theory as a foundation for statistical inference; concept of sampling as a way of capturing uncertainty about data; estimators and their properties; constructing and interpreting confidence intervals, testing a hypothesis, including analysis of variance.

Objectives

The learning goals associated with this unit are to:

• interpret business and economic data using descriptive statistics techniques
• construct and interpret index numbers
• describe the concept of a sampling distribution, estimators and their properties
• use P values to make inference on single population means for business and economic decision-making
• interpret and evaluate relationships between variables for business and economic decision-making using simple linear regression
• apply the main ideas of probability theory, discrete and continuous probability distributions to business and economic decision-making.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 30%
Examination (2 hours): 70%

Chief examiner(s)

Kathryn Cornwell

Contact hours

Two 1-hour lectures and one 2-hour tutorial per week

Prohibitions

ETC1000, ETW1102, ETX1100, ETX9000, FIT1006, STA1010, SCI1020