Course Details

33:136:385 Statistical Methods in Business

  • Course Code: 33:136:385
  • Title: Statistical Methods in Business
  • Short Description: Statistics is a science of extracting information from data, making decisions on the basis of that information, and communicating both information and decisions to others. An understanding of statistics is fundamental to performing many business functions, such as marketing, operations, and finance; moreover, statistics forms an important foundation to enable you to learn these and other fields in more depth. This course is designed with both above mentioned characteristics in mind and will focus on developing your knowledge of the principles of statistics (theory) and their application (practice). Since this is a business statistics course, our coverage of theory will be designed to facilitate your use of the appropriate statistical methods and further study of business topics. We will not concentrate on the mathematical foundations of statistics or probability (but it is of course impossible to completely avoid mathematics in a statistics course).
  • Degree Type (BA/BS): Foundational Courses (All Tracks)
  • Track Option: Chemical Data Science Track (Code: NB219CJ), Computer Science Track (Code: NB219SJ), Economics Track (Code: NB219EJ), Societal Impact Track (Code: NB219IJ), Statistics Track Courses (Code: NB219TJ)
  • Degree Option: Foundational Courses (All Tracks)
  • Prerequisite: 01:640:135 or 01:640:151 or 21:640:135 Calculus I is required Introductory level statistics course is required (many variants of the course are accepted, see prerequisites in the official Schedule of Classes)
  • Learning Goals:

    The business school dean’s office requires that each course have learning objectives explicitly tied to those of its academic program (in this case the New Brunswick undergraduate business program). Students successfully completing this course should be able to demonstrate the following:

    Ability to … apply quantitative modeling techniques to analyze business plans and decisions [The second part of overall program objective 1(d)]

    Students will be introduced to basic statistical methods, so that they would be able to design an experiment, analyze observations and make reasonable judgments about the business events. Also, they would be able to construct and utilize predictive statistical models. In particular, after taking this course
    students will learn: analysis of variance, regression analysis, chi-square test and some other nonparametric tests.
  • Expected Work: I am planning for 3 homework assignments. The course covers Chapters 11-15 of the textbook; for chapters 11, 13, and 14-15 HWs will be given. Chapter 12 will be covered at the end of the semester, so there will be no time for the HW; instead several "exam-type" problems will be considered in class. Each HW will be collected in class before its deadline but can be handed in sooner. The HW problems will be taken from the textbook. Note that their numeration may depend on edition; in such cases not only the number but also the text will be given on Canvas.
  • Exams: There will be two exams in this class: one midterm and a final exam.
  • Sample Syllabi: 43_Syllabus_328_SP21.pdf