GAWAHATI UNIVERSITY
B.COM 3rd SEM SYLLABUS
COM-GE-3046(A): BUSINESS STATISTICSMarks: 100 Credit: 6 Lectures: 65
Objective: The objective of this course is to familiarize students with the basic statistical tools used for managerial decision-making.
Unit 1: Statistical Data and Descriptive Statistics (12 Lectures)
a. Nature and Classification of data: univariate, bivariate and multivariate data; time-series and cross-sectional data
b. Measures of Central Tendency
i. Mathematical averages including arithmetic mean geometric mean and harmonic mean. Properties and applications.
ii. Positional Averages Mode and Median (and other partition values including quartiles, deciles, and percentiles).
c. Measures of Variation: absolute and relative. Range, quartile deviation, mean deviation, standard deviation, and their coefficients, Properties of standard deviation/variance
d. Skewness: Meaning, Measurement using Karl Pearson and Bowley’s measures; Concept of Kurtosis
Unit 2: Probability and Probability Distributions (12 Lectures)
a. Theory of Probability. Approaches to the calculation of probability; Calculation of event probabilities. Addition and multiplication laws of probability (Proof not required); Conditional probability
b. Expectation and variance of a random variable, Probability distribution of random variable.
c. Probability distributions:
i. Binomial distribution: Probability distribution function, Constants, calculation for simple exercise
ii. Poisson distribution: Probability function, (including Poisson approximation to binomial distribution), Constants, Solution of related problems.
iii. Normal distribution: Probability distribution function, Properties of normal curve (Theory Part only)
Unit 3: Simple Correlation and Regression Analysis (12 Lectures)
a. Correlation Analysis: Meaning of Correlation: simple, multiple and partial; linear and non-linear, Correlation and Causation, Scatter diagram, Pearson’s co-efficient of correlation; calculation and properties (Proof not required). Rank Correlation, Interpretation of various values of correlation co-efficient.
b. Regression Analysis: Principle of least squares and regression lines, Regression equations and estimation; Properties of regression coefficients; Relationship between Correlation and Regression coefficients;
Unit 4: Index Numbers (12 Lectures)
Meaning and uses of index numbers; Idea of price – relative, Price, Quantity and Value indices.
Construction of index numbers: Laspeyere’s, Paasche’s and fisher’s indices-Aggregative and average of relatives (simple and weighted).
Problems in the construction of index numbers, Tests of adequacy of index numbers- Time reversal test and Factor reversal test.
Deflating and Construction of consumer price indices, chain base index and limitation of index number.
Unit 5: Time Series Analysis (7 Lectures)
Components of time series; Additive and multiplicative models; Trend analysis: Fitting of trend line using principle of least squares – linear case.
Determination of trend by semi- average and moving average. Uses of Time Series analysis.
UNIT 6: Sampling Concepts, Sampling Distributions, Estimation and testing of Hypothesis (10 Lectures)
Sampling: Populations and samples, Parameters and Statistic, Census vs Sampling.
Sampling methods (including Simple Random sampling, Stratified sampling, Systematic sampling, Judgment sampling, and Convenience sampling)
Concept of Sampling distributions and Estimation: Point and Interval estimation of means (large samples) and sample proportion. Characteristics of a good estimation.
Testing of hypothesis- concepts of Null hypothesis, alternative hypothesis, level of significance, test of significance, one- tailed and two- tailed test and errors in testing hypothesis.
Suggested Readings:-
1. Gupta, S.C, Fundamentals of statistics – Himalaya Publishing House.
2. Murray, R Spiegel, Larry J. Stephens , Narinder Kumar. Statistics (Schaum’s Outline Series)
3. Hazarika, Padmalochan, Business Statistics – S.Chand
4. Bhowal, M.K. Fundamentals of Business Statistics (Asian Books Private Limited)