EC203 Economic Statistics The University of the South Pacific

Tutorial 1 Introduction to Statistics

Reading: textbook chapter 1, and Ch. 2 section 2.1 (5th and 6th Ed.)
Coverage
 Key statistical concepts
 Descriptive and inferential statistics
 Role of statistics in Economics and Commerce.
 Types of Data and Types of Dataset

Questions
1. What is economic statistics?
2. How statistics is useful in Economics.
3. A businessman who is running for a vacant city council seat with 20 000 registered voters
conducts a survey (sample). In the survey, 200 out of the 300 registered voters interviewed say
they plan to vote for him.
a) What is the population of interest?
b) What is the element in this question?
c) Define sample?
d) What proportion of the respondents plans to vote for this businessman?
e) Is your answer in part (c) above a parameter or a statistic?

4. Identify each of the following studies as using either descriptive statistics or inferential
statistics.
a) Recording count of numbers of Toyota cars passing by your house between 7pm and 8pm this
evening.
b) Estimating the proportion of households in Suva that have two dependents, from a random
sample of 100 Suva households.
c) Calculating the proportion of female students in a business statistics class.
d) Estimating the average age of students at La Trobe University from a sample of 200 randomly
selected students.

5. (Q2.10 Textbook): At the end of the semester, university students often complete questionnaires
about their courses. Suppose that one university student were asked to complete the following
survey. Determine the type of data each question produced
a. Rate the course [ Highly Relevant, Relevant or Irrelevant ]
b. lecturer teaching style [ Theoretical, Applied]
c. What was your Mid Semester Grade [High Distinction, Distinction, Credit ,Pass or Fail]
d. How many tutorials did you attend this semester?

6. For following data entries identify:

I. The level of measurement (Also called types of data) for each (i.e. whether the possible data are
numerical (quantitative), nominal (categorical) or ordinal.).
II. Type of Arithmetic operation permitted.
III. Type of mathematical calculation permitted.
a) The tax file number of employees.
b) Classifying households as low-income, middle-income or high-income.
c) What is your highest level of education—primary, secondary or tertiary?
d) Weekly Data on world market oil prices in US dollars.
e) Data on annual Economic Growth for Fiji over period of 1980-2010.
f) Data on occupation of tourists arriving to Fiji.

7. Interpret meaning of 10% level of significance.

Multiple choice
1. A politician who is running for the office of premier in a state with 1 million registered voters
commissions a survey. In the survey, 52% of the 3000 registered voters interviewed say they plan
to vote for her. The sample is the:
A 1 million registered voters in the state.
B 52 % of, or 1560, voters interviewed who plan to vote for her.
C 3000 registered voters interviewed.
D 48% of, or 1440, voters interviewed who plan not to vote for her.
2. A summary measure that is computed from a sample to describe a characteristic of the
population is called:
A a parameter. B a statistic.
C a population. D None of these choices are correct.

3. A summary measure that is computed from a population is called:

A a parameter. B a statistic.
C a sample. D All of these choices are correct.

4. Descriptive statistics deals with methods of:

A organizing data. B summarizing data.
C presenting data in a convenient and informative way. D All of these choices are
correct.

5. You ask five of your classmates about their height. On the basis of this information, you state that
the average height of the students in the sample is 170 cm. This is an example of:
A descriptive statistics. B inferential statistics.
C a parameter. D a population.

6. Which of the following statements is not true?

a) One form of descriptive statistics uses graphical techniques.
b)One form of descriptive statistics uses numerical techniques.
c) In the language of statistics, the term population refers to a group of people.
d)Statistical inference is used to draw conclusions or inferences about characteristics of populations
based on sample data.

M Bhatt