KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

2022/2023 ACADEMIC YEAR

ECON 255: STATISTICS FOR ECONOMISTS I
Course Information

Course Lecturers:
Hadrat M. Yusif (PhD)
hadraty@yahoo.co.uk / hmyusif.cass@knust.edu.gh
TEL: +233 (0) 208196942

Samuel Tawiah Baidoo (PhD)

samueltawiahbaidoo@yahoo.com / Samuel.baidoo@knust.edu.gh
TEL: +233 (0) 243751607
Lecturer hours and Venue:
Time: Mondays: 2:45 pm - 4:45 pm; Venue: Old Laundry (OL)
Time: Tuesdays: 10:15 am – 12:15 pm; Venue: New Block (NB) GF 09
Tutorials: Wednesdays and Thursdays
Introductory information
This course is a 3 credit- hour two semesters course for students taking Economics as part of the
BA Economics programme. It is assumed that students will have followed the courses computer
literacy. Social Statistics, and Introduction to Maths for Economists in their first year.
Course Aims
The aim of the course is to familiarise students with statistical techniques and their application to
the field of Economics and other social sciences. Topics include summarising and plotting data,
basic probability theory, hypothesis testing, correlation analysis, simple linear regression, index
numbers, and times series. Students are introduced to the use of statistical packages such as
SPSS, Eviews and Stata in analysing time series, cross-sectional and panel data and are required

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to undertake a short coursework project as part of the assessment for the course using these
packages.
Intended Learning Outcomes of the Course
On the completion of this course students will:
 be able to demonstrate a knowledge of quantitative techniques appropriate to the study of
applied economics, general management.
 be familiar with sources and content of economic information and data.
 Be able to demonstrate a knowledge of how to conduct and evaluate empirical work.
 Be able to carry out basic practical work using appropriate estimation techniques.
 Be able to carry out simple self-directed study and research.
 Be able to use appropriate computer software for statistical analysis of economics and
management data.
Course organization
The course consists of ten two-hour lectures and nine one-hour tutorials. Lectures begin on
Monday, 23rd January, 2023 of teaching week 1 and continue through to week 10 inclusive, with
a review Lecture in week 11. Tutorials begin in week 2 and continue through to week 10
inclusive.
Course attendance and participation
All students are urged to attend the lecture series for this course. Students are also advised to
attend lectures with scientific calculators. Attendance at tutorials is compulsory and a register
will be taken each week. Attendance and participation in tutorials are recorded on the semester
course report forms, which will be consulted by the lecturer when he is asked to provide a
reference for you. Apart from this, attendance at tutorials is essential if students are to understand
the topics covered by the course and to do well in the assignment and final exams. Like most
mathematical subjects, practise makes perfect!
Therefore, if, for a good reason, a student want to miss a lecture, please let the lecturers know.
Upon returning to lecture after any absenteeism, students are responsible for completing any
assignment, class work, or exercise during their absence. Any student who absents him or
herself from lectures for 3 consecutive times without any reason or permission will not be
allowed to write the end of semester examination.
Assessment and grading
The Statistics for Economists course is formally assessed via an unseen exam paper, mid-
semester and coursework assignments
Midterm exams 15%
Coursework assignments 15%
Final exams 70%

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Students are advised to note that late or non- submission of assignments will attract a zero
grade
The deadline for submission of course assignment will be communicated to students by the
lecturer each time. Marked coursework will be returned at the later part of the semester.
Mode of delivery

The course will be delivered through lectures, PowerPoint Presentations, group discussions,
assignments and lecturer led calculations. Online mode of teaching as well as discussions (via
Zoom and Virtual Class) will also be used. Students are expected to do intensive reading and
solving of problems on their own to complement the lectures.
Course evaluation
Students are encouraged to provide feedback to the Lecturers and/or the Teaching Assistant(s)
during the course but all students will be asked to complete student evaluation at the end of the
course in the later part of the semester.
Reading List and Outline
Full lecture notes will NOT be provided for the course: the lectures are based on chapters from
Lind’s text book which provides a very full and easy to work through introduction to statistics,
with lots of examples, and some solved problems. Students are STRONGLY RECOMMENDED
TO CONSULT THESE TEXT BOOKS.
PowerPoint slides for each lecture will be provided but these are not substitute for the book as
they will not contain all the relevant material, formulae or examples. The key texts recommended
is
 Douglas A. Lind, William G. Marchal, and Samuel A Wathen (2021). Statistical
Techniques in Business and Economics. Eighteenth Edition (19 edn in 2024). McGraw
Hill Education. New York.

The following texts are also very good

 Gerald Keller (2018). Statistics for Management and Economics. Eleventh Edition.
Cengage Learning. USA
 Michael Barrow (2017). Statistics for Economics, Accounting and Business Studies.
Seventh Edition. Pearson Education, Harlow, United Kingdom.
 Douglas A. Lind, William G. Marchal, and Samuel A Wathen (2017). Statistical
Techniques in Business and Economics. Fifteenth Edition. McGraw Hill Education. New
York.
 Francis, A, & Mousley, B. (2014). Business Mathematics and Statistics. 7th Edition.
South-Western. Cengage Learning EMEA.

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 Francis, A. (2008). Business Mathematics and Statistics. 6th Edition. South-Western.
Cengage Learning EMEA.
 Lind and Marchal (2008). Basic statistics for business and Economics, most recent
edition (McGraw- Hill) [Hereafter-LMW]
 Levine et al. Statistics for Managers- Using Microsoft Excel, most recent edition
(Prentice Hall).
 Douglas Lind, William G. Marchal, and Samuel A Wathen (2006). Basic Statistics for
Business and Economics. Fifth Edition. McGraw Hill. New York.

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 Course Schedules
JANUARY, 2023

Week Date Lecture Topics

1. 23/01 & 24/01 Introduction:
Why study statistics? What is statistics?
2. 30/01 & 31/01 Descriptive statistics: Summarising data using frequency tables and
graphical techniques
3. 06/02 & 07/02 Descriptive statistics: Summarising data using numerical
techniques
(measures of location, dispersion, symmetry)
4. 13/02 & 14/02 Descriptive statistics: Displaying and exploring (dot plots, box
plots, quartiles, percentiles, IQR, coefficient of skewness)
5. 20/02 & 21/02 Basic Probability concepts
Rules and properties
27/02 – 03/03 MIDSEM
6 06/03 & 07/03 Normal probability distributions
7 13/03 & 14/03 Estimation and Confidence interval
Using estimates for inference
8 20/03 & 21/03 Hypothesis testing 1:
Testing claims about a statistic from a single sample
9 27/03 & 28/03 Hypothesis testing 2:
Testing claims about differences between two samples
10 03/04 & 04/04 REVISION
11/04 - 28/04 END OF FIRST SEMESTER EXAMS

ECON 256
Course organization

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The course consist of ten two-hour lectures and nine one-hour tutorials. Lectures begin on
Monday,11th J of teaching week 1 and continue through to week 10 inclusive, with a review
Lecture in week 11. Tutorials begin in week 2 and continue through to week 10 inclusive.

Course Schedules
MAY, 2021

Week Date Lecture Topics

1. HYPOTHESIS TESTING: What is hypothesis testing?
2. Testing for the Population Mean-Large Sample
3. Tests Concerning Proportions
4. Tests of Hypothesis: Small Samples
5. Two-Sample Test of Hypothesis
6. Two-Sample Test About Proportions
7. Comparing Population Means with Unknown Standard Deviation
8. Comparing Population Means
9. Two-Sample Tests of Hypothesis-Dependent Samples
10. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
11. ANOVA-Comparing Means of Three or More Populations
12. Linear Regression and Correlation/Regression Analysis
Simple Index Numbers
Time Series Analysis