ECON 309 CONCEPTS
descriptive vs. inferential statistics
populations and samples
primary vs. secondary data
ways primary data is collected
nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio data
cross-sectional, time-series, and panel data
mean, median, and mode
variance and standard deviation
use & abuse of statistics
mean/median differences
comparison statistics
scaling for population
totals, changes, and percent changes
percent change from prior year, or base year
changing content of terms
use & abuse of graphs
pie charts, bar charts, line charts
manipulative scales
misleading pictograms
simple, systematic, cluster, and stratified sampling
selection bias
reporting bias
correlation vs. causation
reverse, external, multiple, joint, and indirect causation
necessary and sufficient conditions
intersections and unions
conditional probability
Bayes’ Rule
probability distributions
normal distribution and use of z-table
standard error of the mean
confidence intervals (using both z-stats and t-stats)
confidence and significance levels
hypothesis testing (using both z-stats and t-stats)
one-tail versus two-tail tests
p-value
simple regression
multiple regression
hypothesis testing for regression coefficients (using t-stats or p-values)
methods of dealing with non-linearity (logarithms or squared variables)
dummy variables
simultaneous determination
(But you don’t need to know about instrumental variables.)
multicollinearity
heteroskedasticity
autocorrelation
correlation vs. causation in the context of regressions