Data Analysis
(posted: 31 Aug 2025)
This message outlines the lesson plans for our sessions
on Tue 02 Sep and Thu 04 Sep as well as for our sessions
on Tue 09 Sep and Thu 11 Sep.
After finishing our introductory discussions of the
Octopus Test and the
effect of the minimum wage,
we will begin the theoretical component of the course with an
introduction to data analysis.
After that, we'll discuss
measures of central tendency
and measures of variability.
To prepare, please read Illowsky and Dean, chaps. 1 and 2.
Then please begin working on
homework 2.
Welcome to Statistics
(updated: 21 Aug 2025)
Welcome to
Statistics.
This website helps me organize the course.
I hope you find it helpful.
I have posted a copy of the
syllabus.
Please review it and the materials listed on the
statistics page.
And in case you ever need them,
I keep old messages on the
message board page.
I hope this way of organizing the course helps.
textbook and software
The textbook that we will use is
Illowsky and Dean's (2023)
Introductory Statistics, 2e.
As a publication of
OpenStax – a
non-profit initiative that creates peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks – it's
available in PDF and web versions at no cost and
it's available in a printed version at low-cost.
To conduct a statistical analysis, we'll use
Gretl
because its drop-down menus make it easy to learn statistics.
And it's open-source, so its price is zero and
its users continuously enhance the software.
let's get started
I'd like to begin the semester with a pair of introductory discussions
that will help you appreciate the theory that we'll discuss this semester.
In the first discussion, I'd like to compare
Statistics and Machine Learning.
The specific topic will be the "octopus test" that
Bender and Koller developed in their 2020 paper,
"Climbing towards NLU."
To help you understand it, I have prepared some
notes on
Bender and Koller's paper.
And for fun, be sure to read Appendix A of the paper.
It's hilarious.
In the second discussion, I'd like to focus on a policy issue
that we'll discuss later in the semester.
The specific topic will be how the minimum wage affects employment.
For that discussion, please study my
monopsonist and minimum wage
problem and please read my analysis of
minimum wage, employment and annual pay.
I hope you'll enjoy the discussions.
I'm looking forward to working with you this semester.
Sincerely,
- Eryk Wdowiak
