Statistical Terms Glossary

Business : are programs designed to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services, developed and orchestrated by incubator management and offered both in the incubator and through its network of contacts. Incubators vary in the way they deliver their services, in their organizational structure, and in the types of clients they serve. Successful completion of a business incubation program increases the likelihood that a start-up company will stay in business for the long term: Historically, 87% of incubator graduates stay in business.

An indefinite duration contract of employment was a contract between the employee and the employer, for which the actual duration of the contract has not been agreed in advance.

Refers to an auditor who carries out audit work freely and objectively.

Independent living is a philosophy and a movement of people with disabilities, based on the right to live in the community but including self-determination, equal opportunities, and self-respect.

An independent private institution is an institution that receives less than 50 per cent of its core funding from government agencies. The term “independent” refers only to the degree of a private institution’s dependence on funding from government sources; it does not refer to the degree of government direction or regulation.

It is a separate room with no kitchen, bathroom nor toilet, but sharing with other households these basic services, and it is prepared for living.

This term is regularly used in contradistinction to “dependent variable” in regression analysis. When a variate y is expressed as a function of variables x1, x2, …………, plus a stochastic term the x’s are known as “independent variables”.

A numerical scale used to compare variables with one another or with some reference number.

See program trading.

An elementary or lower-level index with a fixed weight within the upper-level index structure.

Index-linked securities are debt instruments with coupon and/or principal payments linked to commodity prices, interest rates, stock exchange, or other price indices. The benefits to the issuer of indexing include a reduction in interest costs if the deal is targeted at a particular group of investors’ requirements, and/or an ability to hedge an exposed position in a particular market.

The policy of connecting such economic variables as wages, taxes, social security payments, annuities, or pensions to rises in the general price level.

A quantity which shows by its variations the changes of a magnitude over time or space.

How to combine the relative changes in the prices and quantities of various products into (i) a single measure of the relative change of the overall price level and (ii) a single measure of the relative change of the overall quantity level. Or, conversely, how a value ratio pertaining to two periods of time can be decomposed in a component that measures the overall change in prices between the two periods - that is the price index - and a component that measures the overall change in quantities between the two periods - that is the quantity index.

A relative measure of the abundance of a stock; e.g. a time series of catch per unit of effort data.

Option which is based on a stock index rather than an underlying security.

The change in an index number series from one period to another expressed in terms of the difference in the number of index points in each index number.

A quantitative expression of how much each component contributes to the magnitude of the All Groups index number.

See indexing.

The period for which the value of the index is set at 100.

The periodic adjustment of the money values of some regular scheduled payments based on the movement of the CPI or some other price index. The payments may be wages or salaries, social security or other pensions, other social security benefits, rents, interest payments, etc.

The method with which pension benefits are adjusted to take into account changes in the cost of living (e.g. prices and/or earnings.

A procedure whereby a long-term contract for the provision of goods or services includes a periodic adjustment to the prices paid for the goods or services based on the increase or decrease in the level of a nominated price index. The purpose of indexation is to take inflationary risk out of the contract.

Bond where the coupon rate or redemption value is indexed (to other currencies, gold, or fuel prices).