what is statistics?in economics?

Answer 1

Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. It is applicable to a wide variety of academic disciplines, from the physical and social sciences to the humanities; it is also used for making informed decisions in all areas of business and government.

Statistical methods can be used to summarize or describe a collection of data; this is called descriptive statistics. In addition, patterns in the data may be modeled in a way that accounts for randomness and uncertainty in the observations, to draw inferences about the process or population being studied; this is called inferential statistics. Both descriptive and inferential statistics can be considered part of applied statistics. There is also a discipline of mathematical statistics, which is concerned with the theoretical basis of the subject.

The word statistics is also the plural of statistic (singular), which refers to the result of applying a statistical algorithm to a set of data. Thus we speak of employment statistics, accident statistics, etc.



Economics is often described as a social science that seeks to analyze and describe the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.[1] That is, economics studies how individuals, coalitions and societies seek to satisfy needs and wants. However, the vast number of topics to which the methods of economic theory have been applied has caused some to refer to economics as simply "that which economists do."

The word "economics" is from the Greek words οἶκος [oikos], meaning "family, household, estate," and νόμος [nomos], or "custom, law," and hence means "household management" or "management of the state." An economist is a person using economic concepts and data in the course of employment, or someone who has earned a university degree in the subject.

Economics has two broad branches: microeconomics, where the unit of analysis is the individual agent, such as a household or firm, and macroeconomics, where the unit of analysis is an economy as a whole. Another division of the subject distinguishes positive economics, which seeks to predict and explain economic phenomena, from normative economics, which orders choices and actions by some criterion; such orderings necessarily involve subjective value judgments.

Economic reasoning has in recent decades been increasingly applied to social situations where there is no monetary consideration, such as politics, law, psychology, history, religion, marriage and family life, and other social interactions.

The approach to economics that is dominant today is usually referred to as mainstream economics. The more specific definition this approach implies was accurately captured by Lionel Robbins in 1932: "the science which studies human behavior as a relation between scarce means having alternative uses." Scarcity means that available resources are insufficient to satisfy all wants and needs; absent scarcity and alternative uses of available resources, there is no economic problem. Heterodox economics, including institutional economics, Marxist economics, socialism, and green economics, sometimes make other grounding assumptions, such as that economics primarily deals with the exchange of value, and that labor (human effort) is the source of all value.

Answer 2

The word 'Statistics' is derived from the Latin word 'Statis' which means a "political state." Clearly, statistics is closely linked with the administrative affairs of a state such as facts and figures regarding defense force, population, housing, food, financial resources etc. What is true about a government is also true about industrial administration units, and even one’s personal life.

The word statistics has several meanings. In the first place, it is a plural noun which describes a collection of numerical data such as employment statistics, accident statistics, population statistics, birth and death, income and expenditure, of exports and imports etc. It is in this sense that the word 'statistics' is used by a layman or a newspaper.

Secondly the word statistics as a singular noun, is used to describe a branch of applied mathematics, whose purpose is to provide methods of dealing with a collections of data and extracting information from them in compact form by tabulating, summarizing and analyzing the numerical data or a set of observations.

The various methods used are termed as statistical methods and the person using them is known as a statistician. A statistician is concerned with the analysis and interpretation of the data and drawing valid worthwhile conclusions from the same.

It is in the second sense that we are writing this guide on statistics.

Lastly the word statistics is used in a specialized sense. It describes various numerical items which are produced by using statistics ( in the second sense ) to statistics ( in the first sense ). Averages, standard deviation etc. are all statistics in this specialized third sense.

The word ’statistics’ in the first sense is defined by Professor Secrit as follows:-

"By statistics we mean aggregate of facts affected to a marked extent by multiplicity of causes, numerically expressed, enumerated or estimated according to reasonable standard of accuracy, collected in a systematic manner for a predetermined purpose and placed in relation to each other."

This definition gives all the characteristics of statistics which are (1) Aggregate of facts (2) Affected by multiplicity of causes (3) Numerically expressed (4) Estimated according to reasonable standards of accuracy (5) Collected in a systematic manner (6) Collected for a predetermined purpose (7) Placed in relation to each other.

Answer 3

Econometrics