OVERVIEW

The teaching provides the statistical knowledge and skills useful for a public decision-maker to understand and quantitatively describe the dynamics of social and economic phenomena. Half of the teaching will be laboratory activities for data analysis using appropriate statistical software tools.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to provide students with a non-superficial understanding and knowledge of economic and social contexts by balancing typical economic statistics topics with elements of social statistics and demography. At the end of the course, students will be able to find the data necessary to understand economic and social phenomena and to construct useful indexes for their study, also in a historical perspective and international comparison.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course follows a didactic path on descriptive and inferential statistics that caters to the educational interests of both those who have already taken basic statistics courses and those attending a statistics course for the first time. Half of the course will be dedicated to laboratory activities for the application of the knowledge acquired during the theoretical lessons, using appropriate statistical software tools in contexts related to social and economic sciences.

• Knowledge and Understanding: Adequate knowledge is acquired on quantitative analysis methods and the interpretation of the obtained results.
• Ability to Apply Knowledge and Understanding: The ability to independently apply the learned analysis methods to new data using the statistical software presented in class is developed, and to produce simple quantitative reports that can be useful in the decision-making process of public administration.
• Judgment Autonomy: Students are able to assess the quality of the available statistical data and choose the most appropriate analysis method based on their informational needs.
• Communication Skills: Students acquire the fundamental statistical vocabulary to communicate clearly and unambiguously with both specialist and non-specialist interlocutors.
• Learning Skills: Students will be able to further explore statistical methods for social sciences by applying them with the software used in class.

PREREQUISITES

None.

TEACHING METHODS

Face-to-face lectures. All lectures will be recorded and made available for asynchronous viewing, but no mixed-mode (in-person and online) lectures are planned.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

• Introduction to Basic Statistical Methods
• Sampling and Measurement
• Descriptive Statistics
• Probability Distributions
• Statistical Inference: Estimation
• Statistical Inference: Significance Testing
• Comparison between Two Groups
• Linear Regression and Correlation
• Multiple Regression and Correlation
• Laboratory Section

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Agresti A. (2022). Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences, Pearson

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

ENRICO DI BELLA (President)

LUCA GANDULLIA

SARA PRETI

PIETRO STANISLAO PARISI (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

First semester

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Written exam followed by an optional oral interview.

The written exam consists of several open-ended questions and exercises to be completed in written form in an open book mode. The optional oral interview involves discussing the statistical methods discussed during the lectures. The oral exam can result in a change (positive or negative) of the written exam grade by up to 3 points.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The written examination will evaluate, in the theoretical part, the knowledge acquired by the student and in the practical part (exercises) the skills acquired in relation to the ability to apply the techniques covered in the course of teaching. Of particular relevance in the evaluation of the theoretical part will be the expository clarity and the property of language. As far as the practical part is concerned, the correct selection and application of the statistical tools necessary for the correct performance of the exercises as well as the comment and interpretation of the results obtained will be evaluated.

The oral exam will assess the student's ability to deal autonomously with the reading and interpretation of a text of economic or social statistics. In particular, the evaluation on the oral part will focus on the exhibition capacity of the research topic described in the volume and on the student's critical sense regarding the techniques and methods used as well as on the quality of the statistical sources that have been used.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

There are no variations in the program or assessment methods for non-attending students. However, these students are encouraged to contact their reference teacher.

Students with certification of Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), disabilities, or other special educational needs are advised to contact both the coordinator, Prof. Aristide Canepa (aristide.canepa@unige.it), and the course instructor at the beginning of the course to agree on teaching and examination methods that, while respecting the course objectives, take into account individual learning methods and provide suitable compensatory tools. For further information, please refer to the webpage: https://unige.it/disabilita-dsa/studenti-disabilità-informazioni-utili