Overall objectives:

1 - To provide students with theoretical and practical knowledge of statistics and probability that will be useful in understanding many technical situations that will arise throughout the course and professional activity.
2 - This curricular unit covers the application of simple statistical techniques to a range of problems in economics. Students will be able to use these statistical techniques to improve data analysis when they are determining descriptive indexes, confidence intervals, performing hypothesis tests to parameters of random variables, or applying regression models.
3 - Students will develop skills in understanding data analysis and reporting results. This course is also intended to provide students with skills to apply and use statistical or spreadsheet software (e.g., SPSS, R, Microsoft Excel) in statistical analysis.

Syllabus:

1. - Concentration indexes
1.1 - Lorenz curve.
1.2 - Index based on Lorenz curve and Gini index.
2. - Index numbers.
2.1 - Simple indexes and synthetic indexes.
2.2 - Laspeyre, Paasche and Fisher indices.
3 - Basic concepts of Probability Theory.
3.1 - Random experiments and events. Axiomatization of probability.
3.2 - Conditional probability. Total probability theorem. Bayes' Theorem.
4. - Random variables.
4.1 - Discrete random variables and continuous random variables.
4.2 - Distribution function of a random variable. Probability distribution and density function.
4.3 - Moments of a random variable.
4.4 - Some discrete random variables and some absolutely continuous random variables.
4.5 - Random vectors.
4.6 - Joint, marginal and conditional distributions. Independence and covariance.
4.7 - Central Limit Theorem.
5. - Statistical Inference.
5.1 - Estimator and estimate.
5.2 - Confidence intervals.
5.3 - Statistical hypothesis tests.
6. - Simple linear regression.
6.1 - The simple linear regression model.
6.2 - Linear correlation coefficient and coefficient of determination.
6.3 - Estimation and inference.

Literature/Sources:

M. Barrow , 2009 , Statistics for Economics, Accouting and Business Studies , Prentice Hall
F. Figueiredo, A. Figueiredo, A. Ramos, P. Teles , 2009 , Estatística Descritiva e Probabilidades - Problemas resolvidos e propostos com aplicações em R , Escolar Editora
B. J. F. Murteira, M. Antunes , 2012 , Probabilidades e Estatística , Escolar Editora
A. D. Aczel , 2005 , Statistics - Concepts and Applications , Irwin
B. J. F. Murteira, C. S. Ribeiro, J. Andrade e Silva, C. Pimenta, F. Pimenta , 2015 , Introdução à Estatística , Escolar Editora
A. Afonso, C. Nunes , 2011 , Estatística e Probabilidades - Aplicações e Soluções em SPSS , Escolar Editora
D. D. Pestana, S. F. Velosa , 2008 , Introdução à Probabilidade e à Estatística , Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
D. Waller , 2008 , Statistics for Business , Elsevier
M. Barroso, E. Sampaio, M. Ramos , 2010 , Exercícios de Estatística Descritiva para as Ciências Sociais , Edições Sílabo
P. Bruce, A. Bruce, P. Gedeck , 2020 , Practical Statistics for Data Scientists: 50+ Essential Concepts Using R and Python , O'Reilly
A. C. Pedrosa, S. M. A. Gama , 2016 , Introdução Computacional à Probabilidade e Estatística com Excel , Porto Editora
C. R. Shabab, M. Barrow , 2024 , Statistics for Economics, Accounting and Business Studies , Pearson
M. D. Ugarte, A. F. Militino, A. T. Arnholt , 2016 , Probability and Statistics with R , CRC Press
M. C. Morais , 2020 , Probabilidades e Estatística - Teoria, Exemplos & Exercícios , IST Press
J. Ralph, R. O´Neill, J. Winton , 2015 , A Practical Introduction to Index Numbers , Wiley

Assesssment methods and criteria:

Classification Type: Quantitativa (0-20)

Evaluation Methodology:
Teaching Methodologies: Lectures. Solving exercises and problems with a statistical software or a calculator. Obtaining statistical analysis and interpreting the outputs. Evaluation: Two tests each weighting 50%.