2010-11 academic year

Statistics (21847)

Degree/study: Degree in Business Sciences
Year: 2nd
Term:1st and 2nd
Number of ECTS credits: 10 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 250 hours
Teaching language or languages: Catalan
Teaching Staff: Elisa Alòs, David Roche and Anna Cuxart

1. Presentation of the subject

The course Statistics is devoted to give a basic background to the student. It is organized in a two-quarters sequence, the first one devoted mainly to the study of the fundamental techniques used in Statistics and the second one devoted to the study of the Inferencial Statististics and the Regression Analysis. This sequence continues the course Introduction to Data Analysis that the students followed in the first quarter.

The aim of this course is to stablish a solid background on theoretical concepts and the capability of its practical application. After consolidanting this basis, the course will introduce the concepts and statistical techniques used in the Business field.

In the first quarter we complement the concepts introduced in the course Introduction to Data Analysis and we introduce some other news about discrete and continuous probability models and about sample distributions. This concepts will be useful not only in the study of Statistics but also in many other fields related with study of the Economy and the Business management.

The second quarter will be focused in the study of the basic techiques on the Inferential Statistics. The most simple comparison tests will be followed by the study of the simple and multiple linear regression techniques.

2. Competences to be attained

General competencies

Specific competencies

Instrumentals

1. Analyis and syntesis capability

2. Organization and planification capability

3. Basic and general knowledge.

4. Problem resolution

5. Oral and writting comunication in the own language.

Interpersonals

6. Critical capability.

Systemical

7. Research abilities

8. Learning skills

9. autonomous-working abilities

10. Creativity

Others

11. Oral and writting comunication with a specialized language

1. Knowledge of the concepts and language of the Probability and the Statistics.

2. Capability to identify the elements in a real problem modelization by using a probabilistic model, and its fit from a data set.

3. Knowledge and application of the mathematical properties of the nvolved concepts.

4. Capability to use the Statistical software and the capability to read reading and to interpret the obtained results.

5. Knowledge and being able to use the basic concepts and techniques of the Inferential Statistics: estimation, confidence intervals, hypotesis tests, variance analysis and simple and multiple regression moldels.

6. Identification of the social and the economical reality where it is correct to apply the above models and techniques. Capability to understand the statistical results in the real data situation.

7. Capability to use the Statistical software to appy the above techniques.

3. Contents

First quarter

1. Data analysis. Samping

2. Probability and Conditioned Probabiliy. Statistical applications.

3. Discrete distributions discretes. The binomial distribution. Statistical applications.

4. Continuous distributions. The normal and the khi-square distributions. Statistical applications.

5. Sample distributions. Statistical applications.

6. Introduction to the Inferential Statistics. Confidence intervals.

Second quarter

1. Statistical Inference. Sample distributions. Confidence intervals.

2. Hypothesis testing.

3. Means and proportions comparison.

4. The imple linear regression model.

5. Introduction yto the multiple linear regression model.

4. Assessment

This course evaluation depends on each quarter evaluation.

Frist quarter examination

- Controls in the seminar sessions. Two 30-minutes examinations in the seminar sessions, based on problems, similar to the problems studied in the lecture and in the seminar sessions (25% of the final mark).

- Evaluation of the seminar sessions. Participation (7,5% of the final mark), and homeworks (7,5% of the final mark),

- Final examination. About all the contents of the course. It will be a two-hours examination. (60% of the final mark). You will need a mark greater or equal than 4 to average with all the other qualifications of the quarter.

Second quarter examination

- Evaluation of the seminar sessions. Participation (7,5% of the final mark), and homeworks (7,5% of the final mark),

Final evaluation of the course

The final mark will be the mean of the marks obtained in the first and in the second quarter, but only if these two marks are equal or greater than 4. If not, the final mark will be 'fail'.

September evaluation

The student will be able to do the examination of the quarter/quarters for those the obtained mark was less than 5. The final mark of this/these quarters will be obtained giving a 20% weight to the controls and seminar evaluation obtained during the course and a 80% weight to the September examination. The final mark for the course will follow the same rules as in the ordinary evaluation of the course.

5. Bibliography and teaching resources

5.1. Basic bibliography

QA276.12 .M66518 1998
Estadística aplicada básica
Moore, David S.
Barcelona : Antoni Bosch, DL 1998

QA276.12 .M665 2004
The Basic practice of statistics
Moore, David S.
New York [N.Y.] : W.H. Freeman, 2004, 3rd ed

http://www.whfreeman.com/bps/
with support matherial for the Moore text

QA276.18 .N49 2007
Statistics for business and economics
Newbold, Paul
Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Prentice Hall, cop. 2007, 6th ed.

QA276.18 .N4918 2008
Estadística para administración y economía
Newbold, Paul
Madrid : Pearson Educación, cop. 2008, 6a ed.

Solutions to some exercises in Newbold
http://shazam.econ.ubc.ca/newbold/

5.2. Teaching resources

Lecture notes, exercise lists with solutions, in Aula Global.

6. Methodology

The teaching and the learning process will be centered in the lecture session, the seminar sessions and the personal work by the student.

There will be 16 lecture sessions by quarter. In each of these one-hour-and-half-sessions we will introduce the concepts, techniques and the basic applications and we will explain the material and the contents that the student will develop outside the classroom.

There will be 6 seminar sessions in small subgroups (1/4 of the group). In these seminar sessions we will check the progress of te student according to the homeworks and we will set out exercices and situations to work individualy or in small groups. Some of the seminar sessions will include a control examination.

We will use statistival software both in the lecture sessions by the instructor and by the student in the seminar sessions and in his/her homework.

It is assumed the student has to do each week:

- Before the lecture session: localization and reading of the materials (autonomous)
- Attendance to the lecture sessions (on-site)
- Study: study of the solved exercices, reading the materials, solving the proposed exercices, checking the bibliography (autonomous).
- Before the seminar sessions: resolution of the proposed exercices. To practice with the statistical software. (autonomous).
- Participation in the seminar sessions (on-site).
- Comparison of the own results with the solutions published by the instructors (autonomous).

7. Planning of activities

You can find a detailed schedule for the lecture and for the seminar sessions in Aula Global.

Schedule (approximated) for the first quarter

a) Lecure sessions

Block 1: 5 sessions (23 and 30 Sept; 1,7 and 8 Oct.)
Block 2: 3 sessions (14, 15 and 21 Oct.)
Block 3: 2 sessions (22 and 28 Oct.)
Block 4: 3 sessions (29 Oct.; 5 and 12 Nov.)
Block 5: 1 session (19 Nov.)
Block 6: 1 session (26 de Nov.)
Review and questions: 1 session (3 Dec.)

b) Seminar sessions

Seminar 1: 4/5 Oct.
Seminar 2: 18/19 Oct.
Seminar 3: 25/26 Oct.
Seminar 4: 8/9 Nov.
Seminar 5: 15/16 Nov.
Seminar 6: 22/23 Nov.

c) Controls in the Seminar sessions

Two control examinations in the seminar sessions:
Seminar 3: about the contents of seminars 1 and 2
Seminar 5: about the contents of seminars 3 and 4

d) Homeworks

We will give homeworks in the seminars 2, 3, 4 i 5.