The teaching is organized as follows:

Learning objectives

The course aims at providing participants with the knowledge of statistical tools useful for analysing business phenomena, both with reference to market dynamics and management aspects. The contents of the course are structured so as to broaden the participants' statistical knowledge and strengthen the awareness with which they apply the statistical methods to the business context. The course aims to provide the tools for understanding and contributing to all stages of the statistical production process: from the data collection stage and the integration of statistical sources of data, to the analysis and production of results and evidences useful for the decision-making process of firms. The applicative approach of the course favours the development of skills for analysing and interpreting business phenomena through a critical use of statistical methodology.

Prerequisites and basic notions

The course requires knowledge of the fundamental notions of descriptive statistics and statistical inference taught in the bachelor's degree programmes.

Program

Data sources and statistical information for business:
- primary and secondary data
- internal and external sources of data
- probabilistic sampling for market survey
Business forecasting:
- smoothing techniques: moving averages and exponential smoothing
- techniques for decomposing economic time series applied to business forecasting
Multivariate statistical analysis for business data and company business performances:
- simple linear regression models
- multiple linear regression models
- introduction to logistic regression
Economic and business indicators:
- statistical ratios
- simple and composite index numbers
- turnover rates
Introduction to statistical quality control:
- process capability ratios
- control charts for variables
Lecture slides and other learning materials are available on the e-learning website.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Frontal lectures in classroom and recorded lectures available online.

Learning assessment procedures

The assessment of learning outcomes consists in a written examination.
The examination consists of:
* fifteen short, multiple choice, or calculated questions
* one open-ended question
* two open-ended questions chosen from three available
All kinds of questions may be focussed on theoretical and methodological issues, may consist in exercises, or may require the student to discuss and analyse some practical problem using notions and tools learned throughout the course.
The teacher may require students to take an oral examination which completes the evaluation of the acquired knowledge. The final grade may be equal, higher or lower than the grade got on the written part of the exam.

Evaluation criteria

The written examination assesses the level of knowledge of the topics of the course, the mastery of technical language and the writing skills, the ability to analyse business and market data by means of the methods illustrated in the course and the ability to interpret the results of the analyses.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

The examination score is on a 30-point scale (passing mark: 18).

Exam language

Italiano