PROBABILITY & STATISTICS

(Bachelor Degree)

Pham Thi Hong Tham

Faculty of Mathematical Economics - NEU
thamtkt@neu.edu.vn

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PROBABILITY & STATISTICS – Pham Thi Hong Tham – NEU – www.mfe.edu.vn
 Materials
[1] Anderson, Sweeney, Williams, Camm, Cochran
(2018), Statistics for Business and Economics, 13th
Edition, South-Western.
[2] Linda H., John F. (2013), Applied Statistics for
Business and Management using Microsoft Excel,
Springer.
[3] Paul Newbold, William L. Carlson, Betty M. Thorne
(2013), Statistics for Business and Economics, 8th
Edtion, Pearson.
[4] Syllabus, slide and other documents

PROBABILITY & STATISTICS – Pham Thi Hong Tham – NEU – www.mfe.edu.vn 2

 Materials
▪ SOFTWARE:
• Microsoft Excel - Data Analysis Toolpak
• IBM SPSS Package
▪ Calculator
▪ DATA and Others: www.mfe.edu.vn/buiduonghai:
*Program* > *Class*
• Bui Duong Hai (2016), Microsoft Excel Using for
Statistics Practice, NEU (Vietnamese version)

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 LECTURE 1 - INTRODUCTION
▪ Concepts

▪ Branches of Statistics
▪ Elements of Statistics

▪ [1] Chapter 1, pp. 1 – 29.

▪ [2] Chapter 1, pp. 1 – 9.
▪ [3] Chapter 1, pp. 21 - 28

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 What is statistics?
▪ United States Department of Labor reported that the
unemployment rate fell to 8.2%, the lowest in over
three years (The Washington Post, April 6, 2012).

▪ The median selling price of a vacation home is

$121,300 (@CNNMoney, March 29, 2012).

▪ The Federal Reserve reported that the average credit

card debt is $5,204 per person (PRWeb website, April
5, 2012).

PROBABILITY & STATISTICS – Pham Thi Hong Tham – NEU – www.mfe.edu.vn 5

 What is statistics?

▪ Statistics is the science concerned with developing

and studying methods for collecting, analyzing,
interpreting and presenting data.

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 Statistic in Practice
▪ Case study: Bloomberg Businessweek
• managing its own business
• learn about subscriber
demographics, reading
habits, likely purchases, lifestyles,
…
▪ One recent North American subscriber survey:
• 90% of BB subscribers use a personal computer at
home
• 64% of BB subscribers are involved with computer
purchases at work
PROBABILITY & STATISTICS – Pham Thi Hong Tham – NEU – www.mfe.edu.vn 7
 Statistics to …
▪ Understand business environment
▪ Provide information for decision making
▪ Predict, forecast

 Apply in all aspects of business, economics,

management (accounting, finance, insurance,
marketing, production, information system...)

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 Statistics is the fact ?
▪ Yes, but No !
▪ Information for Statistics
▪ Statistics maybe biased
▪ Without testing for correction of statistics, decision
would be wrong
 Statistics problem:
• Accuracy of data?
• Appropriate method?

PROBABILITY & STATISTICS – Pham Thi Hong Tham – NEU – www.mfe.edu.vn 9

 Some concepts of Statistics
▪ Data are the facts and figures collected, analyzed, and
summarized for presentation and interpretation
▪ Elements are the entities on which data are collected
▪ A variable is a characteristic of interest for the elements
Variables
English Maths
No. Name Sex Age …
Mark Score
1 Anderson M 19 A 8 …
2 Becky F 20 C 9 …
Obs.

3 Charles M 20 B 7
… … … … … …. ….
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 Data Sources
Primary and Secondary data
▪ Primary data: observed / collected by the investigator
for a specific purpose
• From survey, questionnaire, records
 Raw data  Process
▪ Advantages: relevant to the purpose, flexible, deep
information
▪ Disadvantages:
• Costly, not response, missing information
• Errors by measures, surveying method,…

PROBABILITY & STATISTICS – Pham Thi Hong Tham – NEU – www.mfe.edu.vn 11

 Data Sources
▪ Secondary data: collected in the past or other parties
• Government, organizations, institutes,…
• Published, on the internet, buying
 Collect, process for purposes
▪ Advantages
• Official, high accuracy
• Bigger data, less expense
▪ Disadvantages
• May not relevant to the purpose
• Cannot survey further information

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 Population and Sample
▪ Population: set of all interested elements
• Population size: N, maybe infinite
• Value from population: parameter


▪ Sample: subset of Population

• Sample size: n, finite 
• Value from sample: statistic 




  
  
  
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 Types of Variable
▪ Qualitative and Quantitative
▪ Qualitative (Categorical): Nominal and Ordinal
• Nominal: incomparable values
Ex.: Name, Address, Study Specification,…
• Ordinal: comparable values but not calculated
Ex.: Rank, Level, Shoe size,…
• Special: Binary (dichotomous) variable:
Ex.: Yes/No, Pass/Fail, Gender,
▪ Qualitative: could be coded into number

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 Types of Variables
▪ Quantitative (Numerical, Scale) variable:
• Discrete vs Continuous
✓ Discrete: Number of items, Score, Age
✓ Continuous: Time, Length,
• Interval vs Ratio:
✓ Interval: plus, minus only
✓ Ratio: divide, multiple are acceptable
▪ Classification of Quantitative variable is not important

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 Scales of Measurement

Qualitative (Categorical) Quantitative (Numerical)

Nominal Ordinal Discrete Continuous

Listing, Listing, Interval Ratio
Grouping Grouping,
Sorting, Listing, Grouping, Sorting
Maybe ± Math operation: ±, , ÷, …

Coded by numbers Used to rank

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 Types of Variables

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 Statistics
▪ Gathering data
▪ Processing data
▪ Presenting information
▪ Analyzing data → higher level informatic results
▪ Inference information

Primary Superior
Information Statistics Information
(Data) (Result)

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 Branches of Statistics
Two main branches:

▪ Descriptive Statistics: organize, summarize, present

data in convenient and informative way.
▪ Inferential Statistics: predict, forecast, verify
knowledge by analyzing data.

▪ This course: fundamental methods and techniques of

descriptive and inferential statistics in management.

PROBABILITY & STATISTICS – Pham Thi Hong Tham – NEU – www.mfe.edu.vn 19

 Summarize
▪ Concept of Statistics
▪ Primary and Secondary data
▪ Observation, Variable, Value
▪ Population and Sample
▪ Type of variables
▪ Scales of Measurement
▪ Branches of Statistics

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 Exercise

▪ [1] Chapter 1 (p.22): 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12

▪ [3] Chapter 1 (p.27): 1.1 – 1.7
▪ Other requirements:
• Read: VHLSS data (Variables, Province code, …)
• Read: “Ethical Guidelines for Statistical Practice”
(https://www.amstat.org/)
• Read carefully: chapter 1 of [2]

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