Statistical Inference
Overview
Statistical Inference
refers to the process of inferring the properties of a data generating process based on a set of
samples of that process. The properties are typically estimates of the
moments of the distribution,
but can be other statistics as well.
Statistical inference is used in hypothesis testing, which gives confidence intervals for
variables of interest, often to determine if it is likely that a variable is non zero.
Surveys and Sampling
One of the common uses of statistical inference occurs where the data generating process to be estimated is a population of
fixed individuals. As an example, a poll may attempt to predict the results of an outcome by sampling a small group from the total
population and trying to estimate the voting outcomes of the whole group.
Topics
