Statistical Methods for Economists – Week 1

                                       (Questions and Tasks)


The topic: Descriptive Statistics

1.) Explain the difference between a population and a sample.

2.) Given the following set of data (considered to be a sample): (16, 20, 24, 18, 20, 22, 15, 20,
16, 22), calculate absolute, relative and cumulative relative frequency of each data point.

3.) What are measures of central tendency, and which measures are the most common?

4.) How do you calculate a median for odd and even number of data?

5.) Calculate an arithmetic mean, modus, and median for the data from Task 2. (Note: for all
calculations you can use Excel or another tool).

6.) What are measures of variability, and which measures are the most common?

7.) How can you calculate a variance from a standard deviation, and vice versa?

8.) Calculate variance, standard deviation, range and coefficient of variation from the data
provided in Task 2.

9.) What are measures of data concentration, and which measures are the most common?

10.) Calculate kurtosis and skewness for the data set provided in Task 2. (Note: you can use KURT
and SKEW function in Excel).