Herman Rubin wrote:
>In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
>Khai L. Lai <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>I have a sort of a conceptual question.
>>When is it better to use the median and when is it better to use the
>>mean to represent the average of a given distribution of data? I
>>believe that the median is preferred when the distribution is skewed
>>because the mean is biased in a skewed distribution. Is this correct?
>>And if the mean is biased in a skewed distribution, how so is it biased,
>>and why is the median unbiased compared with the mean?
>
>I suggest that you approach this, and other such questions,
>as follows:
>
> What would you use if you knew the exact distribution?
>
> How do you do a good job of getting it from the data?
>--
>This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
>are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
>Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
>
>
Good approach suggested by Herman Rubin.
I suggest the original poster think about what is meant by bias. In a
distribution which is skewed right, the mean will in general be to the right of
the median. Why would you say that the mean is biased, or that the median is
unbiased with respect to the mean?
Just some food for thought,
Dan Nordlund
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