Statistics for Making Decisions - 9780367342708

CRC Press

Statistics for Making DecisionsAuthor(s): Nicholas T. Longford\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Chapman & Hall/CRC\nISBN-13: 9780367342708, 978-0367342708\nSynopsis\nMaking decisions is a ubiquitous mental activity in our private and professional or public lives. It entails choosing one course of action from an available shortlist of options. Statistics for Making Decisions places decision making at the centre of statistical inference, proposing its theory as a new paradigm for statistical practice. The analysis in this paradigm is earnest about prior information and the consequences of the various kinds of errors that may be committed. Its conclusion is a course of action tailored to the perspective of the specific client or sponsor of the analysis. The authors intention is a wholesale replacement of hypothesis testing, indicting it with the argument that it has no means of incorporating the consequences of errors which self-evide.