October University for Modern Sciences and Arts

Module Code: ECO-215

Faculty of Management
Module Title: Statistics for Economists I
Sheet 2
Numerical Descriptive Techniques

SOLVE THE FOLLOWING PROBLEMS

Q1. Briefly explain the difference between a population parameter and a sample statistic.
Give one example of each case.
Q2. Which of the following statistics has more than one value?
1) Mean
2) Median
3) Mode
Q3. Which of the following statistics can be calculated for qualitative variable?
1) Mean
2) Median
3) Mode
Q4. When is the value of the variance for a data set zero? Give one example. Calculate
the variance for this example and show that its value is zero.
Q5. The following are the mean and the standard deviation for two data sets.
60, and 12
Data set I :
Data set II: 400, and 50
Is the relative variation in data set I higher or lower that that in data set II?
Q6. The following are the mean and the standard deviation for two data sets.
250, and 35
Data set I :
Data set II: 110, and 22
Is the relative variation in data set I higher or lower that that in data set II?
Q7. A sample of 12 people was asked how much change they had in their pockets. The
responses (in cents) are
52 25 15 0 104 44 60 30 33 81 40 5
1. Do these data contain an outlier?
2. Calculate the measures of central tendency.
3. Briefly describe the advantage and disadvantage for each measures of central
tendency.
Q8. The following data gives the annual earning (in thousands of dollars) for 11
households selected from 1190 interview survey
24 32 27 23 35 33 29 21 23 28 36
a. Find the values of three quartiles Q1 , Q2 and Q3 .
b. Find the percentile rank of 29. Give a brief interpretation of this percentile.
c. Calculate the range, mean, & variance.
Q9. A sample of 9 patients in the IC unit of Sinai hospital was questioned. The number
of heart attacks that they had suffered numbered
2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 10
a. Find the measures of central tendency for the data.
b. Find all the measures of dispersion.
c. Find the 3 quartiles Q1 , Q2 and Q3 and inter quartile range.
Q10. The following data give the number of new cars sold at a dealership during a

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October University for Modern Sciences and Arts

Module Code: ECO-215
Faculty of Management
Module Title: Statistics for Economists I
Sheet 2
Numerical Descriptive Techniques

20-day period.
8

5 12 3 9 10

6 10 11 7

9 11

a) Calculate the values of the three quartiles.

b) Find the value of the 35th percentile. Give a brief interpretation of this
percentile.
c) Find the percentile rank of 7. Give a brief interpretation of the percentile rank.
Q11. The following data give the occupational expenses (in hundreds of dollars)
incurred during the 12-month period before the survey by 10 households selected from
the 1990 Diary Survey.
-1.5

- 0.8

5.6

10.0

5.0

3.4

5.3

14.1

16.0

2.6

a. Calculate the mean and median. Do these data have a mode?

b. Find the range, variance, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation.
Q12. The following data give the number of new cars sold at a dealership during a 16day period.
8
5
12
3
9
10
1
8
4
6
13
11
7
7
3
2
a) Do these data contain an outlier?
b) Calculate the mean, median and mode for these data?
c) Find the range, variance, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation.
d) Find the value of the three quartiles Q1 , Q2 and Q3 .
e) Find the percentile rank of 12.
Q13. The following data give the market values (in billions of dollars) of 30 U.S.
companies
12.2 20.0 17.9 11.7 5.9
2.8
5.1
13.6 4.3
9.6
3.1
24.1 27.6 13.1 11.2 31.5 9.7
26.5 18.7 23.1
16.2 5.3
33.1 19.1 36.5 18.3 3.9
24.3 5.6
7.8
a) Find the value of the three quartiles Q1 , Q2 and Q3 .
b) Find the value of 40th percentile. Give a brief interpretation of this percentile.
c) Find the percentile rank of 11.7.
d) Find the inter quartile range.
Q14. Consider the following data sets
Data set I : 4
8
15
9
11
Data set II: 8
16
30
18
22
Note that each value of the second data set is obtained by multiplying the corresponding
value of the first data set by 2. Calculate the variance for each of these two data sets using
the formula for population data. Comment on the relationship between the two variances.

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