Title: On the frequency of Simpson's paradox and the pitfalls of aggregation

Authors: Moula Cherikh

Addresses: Department of Computer Information Systems, School of Business, Virginia State University, P.O. Box 9038, Petersburg, VA 23806, USA

Abstract: Simpson|s paradox is well known in statistics and arises in real-life situations dealing with social, life and medical sciences, but may not be that well known in business school communities, and especially not well covered in introductory business statistics courses. The paradox occurs when data from two or more groups is aggregated into a single group. This paper introduces Simpson|s paradox in a business context and shows through simulations, under different distributions, that Simpson|s paradox is a plausible event though not a very frequent one.

Keywords: business statistics; data aggregation; Simpson|s paradox; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIOME.2006.009174

International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education, 2006 Vol.1 No.2, pp.171 - 182

Published online: 07 Mar 2006 *

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