DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS IN COST RESEARCH: ANALYSIS OF XIV BRAZILIAN CONGRESS OF COSTS

Abstract

The objective of this article is the study of the utilization of descriptive statistics in costs researches, specifically in those presented in XIV Brazilian Congress of Costs, carried out in 2007, in João Pessoa city (PB). Firstly one does a theoretical revision about descriptive statistic and the presentation of the Costs Congress, carried out since 1994, under the organization of the Brazilian Association of Costs. In the sequence the methodological aspects of the study are presented, classified as descriptive, quantitative and applied. To answer to the research problem it was used as a technical procedure the bibliographical revision and the descriptive statistics. The development of the study was based in the analysis of 238 articles admitted in the referred congress. It was analyzed the technical procedures of collection and the analysis of adopted data and the relationship to the descriptive statistics in the problem explanation It is verified that the articles that use as technical procedure the bibliographical revision in its great majority have not used the descriptive statistic having preferred other analysis techniques. In a different ways, about 40% of the articles that used as a technical procedure the case study or which presented models or practical exercises used elements of the descriptive statistics. The articles that used as technical procedure the finding and documental research, about 90%, used the descriptive statistics as frequencies and tables.