Question

THIS IS THE SECOND TIME I AM UPLOADING THIS QUESTION - PLEASE READ THE REQUIREMENT! ANSWER IN 150 WORDS OR LESS!

Section 1 (3 marks: You can start this section after Week 4 lecture)

Read the following article:
Harford, T. (2014), ‘Big data: A big mistake?’, Significance 11(5), 14–19.

Question: Critically evaluate the main points of the article using three bullet points, in less than 150 words in total.

Critical evaluation means

• To give your opinion on something
• To support your opinion (with evidence where possible).
• Note: Critiquing is NOT simply stating that something is “bad”.
• Weigh up strengths and weaknesses.
• Appraise the worth of something - test assumptions - judge the worth of an argument

or position.
Your points of evaluation may include the following (but not limited to):

• Correlation vs. causation
• Importance of theories or insights in statistical analysis
• Multiple testing problem
• Sampling error
• Sampling bias
• Big data hubris

In providing your answers, you can also refer to the contents of Lecture in Week 4 (Statistical Significance in Empirical Research)

Answer 1