Statistical construction error
August 20, 2011
Yes, the title is meant to have two readings.
The effect
The Numbers Guy, among other examples, talks about the UK Office for National Statistics needing to revise its estimate for the construction sector output because of an error.
Original: 2.3% growth
Corrected: 0.5% growth
Here is the Telegraph article cited by The Numbers Guy.
The cause
The spreadsheet that is used to calculate the statistic was not updated properly.
Questions
Have they not read “Spreadsheet Addiction”?
Why are they not using R?
Does this scare anybody else?
Epilogue
Who would take the repercussions when the bottle is to blame?
from “Down the Mountain” by Robin E. Contreras
