Event History Analysis with R

Appendix A

Basic Statistical Concepts

A.1 Introduction

The statistical concepts that are important for understanding what is going on in this book are gathered here, but briefly treated. The interested reader who wants a deeper understanding of statistical concepts should have no problems in finding suitable text books. There are, for instance, some recent texts that teaches statistics and how to use it in R (Dalgaard 2008).

A.2 Statistical Inference

Statistical inference is the science that help us draw conclusions about real-world phenomena by observing and analyzing samples from them. The theory rests on probability theory and the concept of random sampling. The statistical analysis never gives absolute truths, but only statements coupled ...