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

Subscribe to the Portfolio Probe blog by Email

Latest posts

Leave a Reply

Related posts

  • Random portfolios versus Monte Carlo

    July 2, 2012

    What is the difference between Monte Carlo -- as it is usually defined in finance -- and random portfolios? The meaning of "Monte Carlo" The idea of "Monte Carlo" [...]

  • Two new, important books on R

    June 22, 2012

    Two books were recently published that are sure to help R grow even faster. R has a reputation, partially deserved, for being hard to learn.  These books will help.  [...]

  • To R or not to R, and other events

    June 21, 2012

    New events To R, or not to R, that is the question The Statistical Computing Section of the Royal Statistical Society presents a one-day event on 2012 June 29. [...]