This monograph presents a radical rethinking of how elementary inferences should be made in statistics, implementing a comprehensive alternative to hypothesis testing in which the control of the probabilities of the errors is replaced by selecting the course of action (one of the available options) associated with the smallest expected loss.

Its strength is that the inferences are responsive to the elicited or declared consequences of the erroneous decisions, and so they can be closely tailored to the client's perspective, priorities, value judgments and other prior information,...

There is no shortage of incentives to study and reduce poverty in our societies. Poverty is studied in economics and political sciences, and population surveys are an important source of information about it. The design and analysis of such surveys is principally a statistical subject matter and the computer is essential for their data compilation and processing.

Focusing on The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), a program of annual national surveys which collect data related to poverty and social exclusion, Statistical Studies of...