Statistics

Introduction

The course provides an introduction to statistical thinking. The student first learns how a sample can be collected and summarized and how we use such summaries to interpret the data. Then, using various statistical methods, we learn to generalize from the sample to the population. The student learns to construct confidence intervals and to carry out hypothesis tests, and how these should be interpreted. The focus is on interpretation of results, often of printouts from software and conceptual understanding. Relatively little emphasis will be placed on mathematical procedures. Through many examples from real life, students should be able to see the relevance and areas of use for statistics in marketing and management subjects. Use of statistical software is an important element of the course.

Course content

• Collection of data. Variables and measurement level.
• Descriptive analysis of the sample.
• Covariation.
• Simple probability theory with focus on the normal distribution.
• Confidence intervals for mean and proportion.
• Hypothesis testing for average and proportion.
• Simple correlation- and regression analysis.
• Selected central tests including the chi-square test for covariation between two categorical variables.