One might also ask what is meant by the 'population escape rate' in this
context. Is the data not population data?
Alan
Dale Berger wrote:
>
> Hi Don et al.,
>
> If we observe one escape out of 1250 inmates, why can't we reliably rule out
> zero as the population escape rate? The normal approximation to the
> binomial may not be appropriate here.
>
> Dale Berger
>
> > "Unreliable" or "useless"? Well, the basic graininess in a rate
> > is one escapee more (or less) than was reported. A rate of .08 per 100
> > is about 1 out of 1250. If the data on which the rate was based were 1
> > escapee out of 1250 inmates, one cannot _reliably_ tell the rate from
> > zero. If the data were 13 escapees out of 16,200 inmates, one would have
> > more faith in the rate, at least insofar as representing a small value
> > different from (not equal to!) zero. Unfortunately, the rate itself
> > does not tell one how grainy the data were.
> >
>-
Alan McLean ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics
Monash University, Caulfield Campus, Melbourne
Tel: +61 03 9903 2102 Fax: +61 03 9903 2007
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