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Econ 307 Till Schreiber: Fall 2010 - Lecture 1

This document discusses key concepts in statistics relevant for analyzing economic data. It covers: 1) How statistics are used to evaluate economic theory using real-world data from sources like the Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment rates. 2) The distinction between populations, which are all individuals of interest, and samples, which are subsets of data that can be measured to make inferences about populations. 3) Different types of economic data like cross-sectional, time series, and panel data, and how statistics are applied to samples to understand underlying data generating processes and make statements about full populations.

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26 views

Econ 307 Till Schreiber: Fall 2010 - Lecture 1

This document discusses key concepts in statistics relevant for analyzing economic data. It covers: 1) How statistics are used to evaluate economic theory using real-world data from sources like the Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment rates. 2) The distinction between populations, which are all individuals of interest, and samples, which are subsets of data that can be measured to make inferences about populations. 3) Different types of economic data like cross-sectional, time series, and panel data, and how statistics are applied to samples to understand underlying data generating processes and make statements about full populations.

Uploaded by

tomrannosaurus
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Econ 307 Till Schreiber

Fall 2010 - Lecture 1


Statistics
• Obviously statistics are used everywhere
• Working with data is crucial for everybody
graduating with Econ, Business, Public Policy,
IR etc. degree
• What’s going to be your first job after college?
– Likely it will involve data analysis
• Evaluate theory with data
An example
• Unemployment data
– http://www.bls.gov/
– Measures the percentage of the civilian labor force who
does not have a job and is actively looking for one
– Measured through surveys:
– “Household survey. The SAMPLE is selected to reflect the
entire civilian noninstitutional POPULATION. Based on
responses to a series of questions on work and job search
activities, each person 16 years and over in a SAMPLE
household is classified as employed, unemployed, or not in
the labor force.” (Source: bls.gov, my emphasis)
Sample vs. Population
• The population is everybody of interest. You
want to know certain measurable
characteristics about the population
• If you can’t measure everybody, you use a
sample of data
• This concept is most often applied to so-called
cross-sectional data (meaning many different
individuals at one point in time)
Data Generating Process
• The unemployment rate is measured each
month. You can graph the rate over time, as
the Bureau of Labor Statistics does.
• This is so-called time series data, other
examples are stock prices, interest rates, etc.
• Often here economists/statisticians refer not
to populations and samples but rather refer to
the underlying Data Generating Process
Panel Data
• Obviously you can combine the two ideas
• Panel data, multiple cross-sections over time
• For example:
– Panel of unemployment rates by county in the U.S.
– http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwue
kwe/multimediafinal.html
From sample to population
• Often as a researcher I have to make do with
sample data. I can calculate statistics from this
data to make statements about population
parameters (whose true value I don’t know
now and may never know).

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