Statistical Analyses
Statistics has applications across a vast array of fields, including economics, psychology, engineering, transports, medical studies, agriculture, meteorology, geology, finance, business, sports, law, environment, and entertainment.
Data is a strategic asset that can enhance management, policies, and decision-making. TASC offers a range of statistical services, including preliminary research, statistical modeling, numerical implementation and computations, and software deployment, ensuring data is used to its fullest potential.
More on this page:
Research
The research phase includes three key elements:
Context
Descriptive statistics
Statistical model or method
The analysis begins with a thorough study of the problem’s context, the goals of the analysis, the potential applications of the results, and relevant literature and practices.
Next, potential statistical models or methods are considered, which might include distributional assumptions, (non-)linear dependency models (e.g., regressions), segmentation, and more.
Descriptive statistics, such as measures of central tendency, dispersion, and frequency distributions, are provided to summarize the data.
Computation
In this phase, the chosen models, assumptions, and data lead to concrete values, interpretations, and probabilistic statements. This process includes, but is not limited to:
Estimation
Inference
Prediction/forecasting
Often, data pre-processing is required, which may involve extracting, merging, and rearranging data from different sources, addressing missing values, and checking for errors.
Estimation involves calculating values for quantities of interest, inference allows for drawing general conclusions from the data, and prediction estimates unobserved data points.
This phase often involves software-based calculations, programming in open-source environments, and packaging code to ensure replicability of results.
Documentation
The report delivered to the client includes, at a minimum, the statistical model and assumptions, relevant estimates, and findings, along with visual representations of the results.
TASC reports are clear, concise, and designed to be understandable. Multiple versions of the report can be prepared if needed, depending on the intended audience or the level of detail required.
Deployment
The numerical computations can be adapted into a software package for future use or integrated into other software environments. This step involves testing and monitoring to ensure everything functions correctly.
Statistics for Business
In business, statistical analyses often aim at factors that ultimately influence revenues and costs.
These are marketing analytics, production metrics, employee productivity. The data may be company specific or market/customer specific.
Key areas of interest might include:
Product Quality and Safety : Estimating the probability of product defects or workplace accidents.
Employee Productivity : Evaluating how compensation strategies impact productivity and identifying any discrimination factors in pay.
Sales Forecasting : Using time series or cross-sectional data to predict sales trends.
Marketing Efficiency: Assessing the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
Financial Risk: Analyzing loan default rates and other credit risks.
Every type of data available within a company can be leveraged for meaningful statistical analysis, providing essential support for informed management and strategic decision-making.
Statistics for Organisations
Governmental, non-governmental, and non-profit organizations, as well as institutes and associations, engage in a wide range of activities and typically collect extensive data. Some of these entities already have statistical departments, and TASC can collaborate with these teams to provide specialized support on specific projects.
Statistics for Law Firms
Statistical methods and probability tools are often integral in both criminal and civil legal cases, where legal professionals may require statistical expertise to handle scientific evidence. For example:
Assessing the impact of a medical treatment or toxic exposure on a person’s health may involve establishing causation.
Econometric analysis might reveal discriminatory pricing practices, dumping, unfair pricing, or financial market violations.
Estimating the likelihood of rare events, such as machinery failure leading to an accident, can be crucial.
While these studies align with general statistical methodologies, the legal system operates on a binary framework: a fact either occurred or did not. Given this dichotomy and the probabilistic nature of statistics, the role of a statistical expert in legal contexts is to provide an independent, impartial, and unbiased opinion to support the justice process.