Statistics for modern business decisions / Lawrence L. Lapin

Includes index.

1. Introduction -- 2. The Population and the Frequency Distribution -- 3. Summary Descriptive Measures: Population Parameters -- 4. Probability -- 5. Probability Distributions and Expected Value -- 6. Sampling -- 7. Sampling Distributions -- 8. Statistical Estimation -- 9. Hypothesis Testing -- 10. Chi-Square Tests and Analysis of Variance -- 11. Further Probability Distributions and the Goodness-of-Fit Test -- 12. Nonparametric Statistics -- 13. Regression and Correlation Analysis -- 14. Multiple Regression and Correlation -- 15. Time Series Analysis and Forecasting -- 16. Index Numbers -- 17. Basic Concepts of Decision Theory -- 18. Bayesian Analysis of Decision Using Experimental Information -- 19. Accounting for Attitudes and Judgment.

In writing this introductory statistics book for students of business and economics, my overriding goal has been to enliven statistics, to make it more interesting and relevant and easier to learn. It is no secret that today's student too often finds statistics boring and irrelevant and more difficult than necessary. To illustrate that statistics is neither boring nor irrelevant, this book treats it as essentially a decision-making tool and includes many modern concepts and applications. All topics are introduced by carefully chosen examples that illustrate more than technical mathematical concepts. The stage is set, the motivation is provided, and the rationale is given as each new concept is presented. Accordingly, the importance of frequency distributions is highlighted by an application to cryptanalysis. A test of randomness is made something more than just another technique by applying it to the 1970 draft lottery. The fact that sampling is just one source of potential error is emphasized by detailing some of the blunders committed in taking the U.S. Decennial Census. Many of the examples and exercises are clearly related to present-day issues, such as health, conservation, and the environment. Several examples of each major area of business and economics- such as accounting, marketing, finance, production, forecasting, and consumer behavior-serve to richly illustrate the applications of statistics.