Use of Statistical Tools — Class 11 Economics

This chapter shows how the statistical tools learnt earlier are applied to a real economic problem by developing a project. A project moves through clear steps: identifying a problem or area of study, choosing a suitable target group, collecting data, organising and presenting the data, analysing and interpreting it, drawing a conclusion, and listing a bibliography. The target group must match the study — a car project targets middle and higher-income groups, while a soap or drinking-water project covers all consumers. Data may be primary, collected through a questionnaire or interview schedule by personal interview, post, phone or email (a postal survey needs a covering letter stating its purpose), or secondary, used when time, money and manpower are short. The collected data are organised through tabulation and shown with bar diagrams, pie diagrams and histograms. Analysis applies measures of central tendency such as the mean, measures of dispersion such as the standard deviation, and correlation to find averages, variability and relationships among variables. The chapter works through a sample project on a toothpaste factory: a fifteen-item questionnaire surveys 100 households, and the mean and standard deviation of monthly family income and toothpaste expenditure are computed by the step-deviation method. The conclusion draws meaningful inferences — about who uses the product, their income and family size, preferred brands and the most effective advertising medium — and may predict future prospects, while the bibliography lists the secondary sources used.