EC203 Economic Statistics The University of the South Pacific

Tutorial 4 Numerical Descriptive Measures

Formulas:

Population Mean x

N
Sample Mean x
x
n
Population Variance
1  x 
2

(use any of the two formulas)     x2 

2

N N 
 
Sample Variance
1    x 
2

(use any of the two formulas) s 

2
 x 
2

n 1  n 
 
Population Standard
Deviation

Sample Standard Deviation

Population coefficient of
Variation

Sample coefficient of
Variation

Population Covariance
 xy 
1   x  .  y  
  xy  
N N 
Sample Covariance
S xy 
1    x  .  y  
  xy  
n 1  n 
Popu. Coefficient of  xy
correlation 
 x y
Sample Coefficient of S xy
correlation r
sx s y
Location of Percentile
 Questions
1) The table below provides descriptive statistics of sugarcane output per acre for farmers with
education up to primary school and for farmers with education up to secondary school.
Cane Output per acre for farmers Cane Output per acre for farmers with
with primary school education secondary school education
Mean 18.21 Mean 17.41
Median 17.75 Median 16.63
Mode 20 Mode 10
Standard Deviation 7.05 Standard Deviation 6.68
Sample Variance 49.74 Sample Variance 44.58
Skewness 0.76 Skewness 0.37
Range 47.33 Range 30.02
Minimum 2.67 Minimum 4.6
Maximum 50 Maximum 34.62
# of farmers 185 # of farmers 107
i. Interpret Median of 17.75 for Cane Output per acre
for farmers with primary education.
ii. Assuming data for farmers with primary education are normally distributed, in what range 95%
farmers will have their cane output per acre. Use appropriate statistics to answer.
iii. Cane Output per acre for farmers with primary school education there is one farmer with
output per acre of 50. Assume that 50 is an extremely high value relative to other observation.
In this case, which measures of central tendency will you use? Justify.
iv. State appropriate statistic(s) that needs to be calculated to know relationship between cane
output per acre and profit from farming.

2). A sample of 20 Fijian Village households had a mean cash income of $12 per day with a standard
deviation of $3 per day. A sample of 60 village households in Vanuatu had a mean cash income of VT 2000
per day with a standard deviation of VT 400 per day. Which sample has the wider spread in cash income?

3). The table below provides performance statistics for two new stocks in share market. Determine which stock
investment is relatively more riskier. Justify your answer.
Rate of Return
Stock Mean Prices of shares Standard Deviation of share prices
FMF $15 5
ANZ $20 6

4. For a tutorial class students tutorial was ranged on a scale of 0 to 10. 0 being poor work and 10 for excellent
work. The ranks of 15 students are provided below.

5 8 2 9 5 3 7 4 2 7 4 10 4 3 5
a) Calculate Quartile 1, 50th percentile and 75th Percentile.
b) For above given dataset calculate interquartile range.
c) What does the interquartile range tell you about the data?
d) Draw Box plot and interpret.
e) What is an outlier? Are there any outliers in above dataset?
f) Is there any other appropriate measure of variability that can be used for above dataset?
5). “Increase in Vanuatu’s imports of goods and services are positive related to Number of tourist
arrivals” Explain how you would verify the statement: State (i) variables for which the data will be
required, (ii) possible graphs and (iii) descriptive statistics that need to be calculated to verify
above statement.
6. An analyst would like to find the effect of years of experience on typing speed. Data was collected for
twelve secretaries at a university in Queensland . The data shown in the following tables were recorded.
Let X= Number of years of experience; Y= Typing Speed (words per minute)
Secretary X Y
A 2 9
B 6 11
C 3 8
D 8 12
E 10 14
F 5 9
G 10 14
H 11 13
I 12 14
J 9 10
K 8 9
L 10 10

1) Which is the dependent and independent variable.

2) Calculate the covariance and the correlation coefficient. Interpret your findings.

7. Following table presents descriptive statistics of mid semester Test (MST) marks of students enrolled
in EC203 in semester 1, 2016.
Assignment Marks
Mean 56
Median 63
Standard Deviation
Sample Variance 679
Minimum 0
Maximum 100
Count 150
a) Interpret Median.
b) State one advantage of Mean as a measure of central tendency.
c) Find standard deviation using given information and interpret assuming MST marks are normally
distributed.
d) 60th percentile for MST marks is 67. Interpret.
e) Quartile 1 for MST marks is 38, interpret.
f) Briefly discuss chebyshev’s theorem and state when it is used.
g) State one advantage of the coefficient of variation.