Lecturer: DAO MINH ANH
Faculty of Business and Administration
Foreign Trade University
Email:


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Textbook
Business Mathematics and Statistics – 5th
edition (A. Francis)
References:
Essentials of Statistics for Business and
Economics – 3rd edition, 2003 (Anderson
Sweeney Williams)
Statistics for Business and Economics – 4th
edition (Paul Newbold)


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Class attendance: 10%
Group Assignment and presentation: 30%

II.

Definitions

III.

Descriptive statistics and Inferential
statistics

IV.

Qualitative and Quantitative data

V.

Scales of Measurement


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What first appear in your mind when we talk
about “statistics”?
interest rates, population, stock market
prices, unemployment…
- In a very general way:
Statistics

numerical information



forecast, decision-makers require as much
information as possible.

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However, after being collected numerical
information is under the raw form.
impossible to comprehend thoroughly

These information need to be summarized, organized and
analyzed so that important features emerges


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“Statistics is the science of uncertainty”
In statistics we have to deal with the
question what might be, what could be…
not what is
One task of statistics is to estimate the
level of uncertainty


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E.g: Before bringing a new product to
market, market research survey about the


Reliable predictions play a key role in
management and making decision
For example: investment decisions must be
made well ahead of the time at which a new
product can be brought to market;
Essentially, forecasts of future values are
obtained through the information of past
behaviors
The analysis of this information suggests
future trend


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A particular problem for management:
making decisions in the condition of
incomplete information

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Therefore, under such circumstances,
possible options should be raised and
considered


Accounting

Public accounting firms use
statistical sampling procedures


1/ Variable is a characteristic that changes or
varies over time for different individuals or objects
under consideration
2/ Experimental Units (elements) are items or
objects on which measurements are taken
4/ Population is the WHOLE set of all items or
individuals of interest
5/ Sample is an observed subset of population
values


Population vs. Sample
Population
a b

Sample

cd

b

ef gh i jk l m n
o p q rs t u v w
x y

z

c


population


- Collect data
e.g., Survey, Observation,
Experiments

- Present data
e.g., Charts and graphs
- Characterize data
e.g., Calculate mean =

∑x
n

i


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Inferential statistics: Procedures used to
draw conclusions or inferences about the
characteristics of a population from
information obtained from the sample.
Making estimates, testing hypothesis…
Used when we can not enumerate the whole
population