ABSTRACT
Although this paper was written before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the findings of this study are of far wider than of historic interest. This study investigates the contrast between statistics in the U.S. and East Germany, two countries with very different social systems. The issue came into focus when the author reviewed the latest edition of the East German textbook “STATISTIC by A. Donda, as well as five other textbooks on management- and economic statistics from that country, while at the same time selecting a new American textbook for the business school course “Applied Statistics.” Striking differences between socio-economic statistics in the East and in the West became apparent. Statistics in east-bloc and in western societies has to respond to different tasks, resulting in different methodologies, and more importantly, in different conceptions of what constitutes the foundation of statistics. Textbooks from the east-bloc in the U.S. and western textbooks in the east-bloc have been mutually inaccessible, accentuating the isolation in which these separate developments of statistics have taken place. This comparison allows fascinating insights into the strengths and weaknesses of our own approach to socio-economic statistics, and potentially should benefit both sides.
