about this course
Statistics is the proving ground of economic theory. A large share of the economic literature is devoted
to comparing the predictions of theory to the data that we observe in practice. Statistics is also a very
practical field. Businesses and governments frequently analyze data to understand market trends and make
well-informed decisions.
With the growth of computing technology, we can now collect and analyze far more data than we ever could before.
Today, decisionmakers want to know "what the numbers mean." For that knowledge, they turn to statistics.
what you will learn
As an introductory course in data analysis, this Statistics course will teach you
how to organize, present, and interpret numeric data and how to construct hypothesis tests.
Properly constructed statistics help us better understand the world we live in and help us
make better decisions. So as you study Statistics, I hope you will also learn to
appreciate data and learn how to create honest, informative statistics.