An Introduction to Statistical Methods: A Textbook for College Students, a Manual for Statisticians and Business Executives

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Macmillan, 1917 - History - 482 pages

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Page 34 - That the information furnished under the provisions of this act shall be used only for the statistical purposes for which it is supplied.
Page 116 - Performed consciously or unconsciously, the act of classification is indispensable to and accompanies every scientific inference. A mind is orderly or slovenly, according as it does or does not habitually and accurately classify the facts with which it comes in contact. The success of an investigation, the worth of a conclusion, are in direct proportion to the fidelity to this principle and the exhaustiveness with which the process is carried out.
Page 304 - Now the field worker collecting data for an index number must select from among all these different prices for each of his commodities the one or the few series of quotations that make the most representative sample of the whole. He must find the most reliable source of information, the most representative market, the most typical brands or grades, and the class of dealers who stand in the most influential position. He must have sufficient technical knowledge to be sure that his quotations are for...
Page 4 - Be careful to weigh and record all the possible causes of an event, and do not attribute to one what is really the result of the combination of several. 4. Never compare data which have nothing in common.
Page 297 - These difficulties, and others that might be instanced, though not insuperable, add to the complications of weighting. In regard to all these suggestions, whether for improvement in the arithmetic mean or for the use of a different mean, it must be borne in mind that no index number corresponds to a real thing. It is not like the mean of certain observations in natural science — such, for example, as those for measuring the distance between the earth and the sun — of which any one may err, but...
Page 301 - The manufactured goods fell less in 1890-1896, rose less in 1896-1907, again fell less in 1907-1908, and rose less in 1908-1913. Further, the manufactured goods had the narrower extreme range of fluctuations, the smaller average change from year to year, and the slighter advance in price from one decade to the next.
Page 330 - They can not be made to give apparently inconsistent results like arithmetic means. When published as sums of money, they can be added, subtracted, multiplied, divided, or averaged in any way that is convenient. When weighted on a sound system, they...
Page 320 - Wise choice of the average to use in making an index number, involves careful consideration of the materials to be dealt with and of the purpose in view. (1) If that purpose be to measure the average ratio of change in prices, the geometric mean is the best. Indeed, in strictness, it is the only proper average to employ.
Page 431 - When we vary the cause, the phenomenon changes, but not always to the same extent; it changes, but has variation in its change. The less the variation in that change the more nearly the cause defines the phenomena, the more closely we assert the association or the correlation to be. It is this conception of correlation between two occurrences embracing all...
Page 298 - On the contrary, most of them are "generalpurpose" series, designed with no aim more definite than that of measuring changes in the price level. Once published they are used for many ends — to show the depreciation of gold, the rise in the cost of living, the alternations of business prosperity and depression, and the allowance to be made for changed prices in comparing estimates of national wealth or private income at different times. They are to prove that wages ought to be advanced or kept stable...

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