Essentials Of Statistical Inference

Aimed at advanced undergraduates and graduate students in mathematics and related disciplines, this engaging textbook gives a concise account of the main approaches to inference, with particular emphasis on the contrasts between them. It is the first textbook to synthesize contemporary material on computational topics with basic mathematical theory.

​This book is for students and researchers who have had a first year graduate level mathematical statistics course. It covers classical likelihood, Bayesian, and permutation inference; an introduction to basic asymptotic distribution theory; and modern topics like M-estimation, the jackknife, and the bootstrap. R code is woven throughout the text, and there are a large number of examples and problems. An important goal has been to make the topics accessible to a wide audience, with little overt reliance on measure theory. A typical semester course consists of Chapters 1-6 (likelihood-based estimation and testing, Bayesian inference, basic asymptotic results) plus selections from M-estimation and related testing and resampling methodology. Dennis Boos and Len Stefanski are professors in the Department of Statistics at North Carolina State. Their research has been eclectic, often with a robustness angle, although Stefanski is also known for research concentrated on measurement error, including a co-authored book on non-linear measurement error models. In recent years the authors have jointly worked on variable selection methods. ​

Aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics and related disciplines, this book presents the concepts and results underlying the Bayesian, frequentist and Fisherian approaches, with particular emphasis on the contrasts between them. Computational ideas are explained, as well as basic mathematical theory. Written in a lucid and informal style, this concise text provides both basic material on the main approaches to inference, as well as more advanced material on developments in statistical theory, including: material on Bayesian computation, such as MCMC, higher-order likelihood theory, predictive inference, bootstrap methods and conditional inference. It contains numerous extended examples of the application of formal inference techniques to real data, as well as historical commentary on the development of the subject. Throughout, the text concentrates on concepts, rather than mathematical detail, while maintaining appropriate levels of formality. Each chapter ends with a set of accessible problems.

A concise, easily accessible introduction to descriptive and inferential techniques Statistical Inference: A Short Course offers a concise presentation of the essentials of basic statistics for readers seeking to acquire a working knowledge of statistical concepts, measures, and procedures. The author conducts tests on the assumption of randomness and normality, provides nonparametric methods when parametric approaches might not work. The book also explores how to determine a confidence interval for a population median while also providing coverage of ratio estimation, randomness, and causality. To ensure a thorough understanding of all key concepts, Statistical Inference provides numerous examples and solutions along with complete and precise answers to many fundamental questions, including: How do we determine that a given dataset is actually a random sample? With what level of precision and reliability can a population sample be estimated? How are probabilities determined and are they the same thing as odds? How can we predict the level of one variable from that of another? What is the strength of the relationship between two variables? The book is organized to present fundamental statistical concepts first, with later chapters exploring more advanced topics and additional statistical tests such as Distributional Hypotheses, Multinomial Chi-Square Statistics, and the Chi-Square Distribution. Each chapter includes appendices and exercises, allowing readers to test their comprehension of the presented material. Statistical Inference: A Short Course is an excellent book for courses on probability, mathematical statistics, and statistical inference at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. The book also serves as a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners who would like to develop further insights into essential statistical tools.

This textbook presents the concepts and results underlying the Bayesian, frequentist, and Fisherian approaches to statistical inference, with particular emphasis on the contrasts between them. Aimed at advanced undergraduates and graduate students in mathematics and related disciplines, it covers basic mathematical theory as well as more advanced material, including such contemporary topics as Bayesian computation, higher-order likelihood theory, predictive inference, bootstrap methods, and conditional inference.

Essentials of Inferential Statistics, fourth edition is appropriate for a one semester first course in Applied Statistics or as a reference book for practicing researchers in a wide variety of disciplines, including medicine, natural and social sciences, law, and engineering. Most importantly, this practical book thoroughly describes the Bayesian principles necessary for applied clinical research and strategic interaction, which are frequently omitted in other texts. After a comprehensive treatment of probability theory concepts, theorems, and some basic proofs, this laconically written text illustrates sampling distributions and their importance in estimation for the purpose of statistical inference. The book then shifts its focus to the essentials associated with confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing for major population parameters, namely, the population mean, population variance, and population proportion. In addition, it thoroughly describes the basics of correlation and simple linear regression as well as non-parametric statistics.

This classic textbook builds theoretical statistics from the first principles of probability theory. Starting from the basics of probability, the authors develop the theory of statistical inference using techniques, definitions, and concepts that are statistical and natural extensions, and consequences, of previous concepts. It covers all topics from a standard inference course including: distributions, random variables, data reduction, point estimation, hypothesis testing, and interval estimation. Features The classic graduate-level textbook on statistical inference Develops elements of statistical theory from first principles of probability Written in a lucid style accessible to anyone with some background in calculus Covers all key topics of a standard course in inference Hundreds of examples throughout to aid understanding Each chapter includes an extensive set of graduated exercises Statistical Inference, Second Edition is primarily aimed at graduate students of statistics, but can be used by advanced undergraduate students majoring in statistics who have a solid mathematics background. It also stresses the more practical uses of statistical theory, being more concerned with understanding basic statistical concepts and deriving reasonable statistical procedures, while less focused on formal optimality considerations. This is a reprint of the second edition originally published by Cengage Learning, Inc. in 2001.