Bias: Definition and additional resources from BNET
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BNET Business Dictionary

Business Definition for: Bias

  • inaccuracy or deviation in inferences, results, or a statistical method

Wiktionary Definition for: Bias

  • countable uncountable inclination towards something; predisposition, partiality, prejudice, preference, predilection
  • countable (textile) the diagonal line between warp and weft in a woven fabric
  • electronics a voltage or current applied for example to a transistor electrode
  • statistics the difference between the expectation of the sample estimator and the true population value, which reduces the representativeness of the estimator by systematically distorting it

Additional Resources

Modern Portfolio Theory and Its Application to Hedge Funds: Part II
This article discusses on some of the problems associated with constructing a hedge fund benchmark including survivorship bias, self-selection bias, catastrophe bias and bull-market bias. Hedge fund investors are confronted with a paradox. In addition to the misconception, that diversification is at the expense of expected return, it is commonly...
Tags: Finance, Investment, Financial Services, Hedge Fund, Theory, Yale University
White papers 2001-08-01
Products and Prejudice: Measuring Country-of-Origin Bias in U.S. Wine Imports
Should exporters worry about country-of-origin bias? Although the pervasiveness of country-level product advertising suggests that they do, lack of data has limited the empirical study of subjective bias toward products from a specific country. Using data from the U.S. wine industry, including numerical blind tasting evaluations, this paper directly computes...
Tags: University Of California
White papers 2003-07-03
A Unified Variational Approach to Denoising and Bias Correction in MR
This paper proposes a novel bias correction method for magnetic resonance MR imaging that uses complementary body coil and surface coil images. The former are spatially homogeneous but have low signal intensity; the latter provide excellent signal response but have large bias fields. They present a variational framework where they...
Tags: Harvard College, Enterprise Software, Document Management, Imaging, Software, Finance, Managerial Accounting
White papers 2003-05-01
Check the bias current (or how to ensure that a blessing is heard).(Rarely Asked Questions: Strange but true stories from the call logs of Analog Devices)(Advertisement)
Q. The bias current in modern amplifiers is very small. Do I need to bother about it? Q. The bias current in modern amplifiers is very small. Do I need to bother about it?
Tags: advertisement, Analog Devices Inc.
Research articles 2005-11-21
The real CBS bias.(Opinion)
Did CBS News executives let their bias blow up what may potentially have been a big story on the eve of an even bigger election? Yes, but that answer depends on what bias we're talking about. If we are talking about the journalist's bias for the &q...
Research articles 2005-01-17
Analyst Disagreement, Forecast Bias and Stock Returns
This paper presents evidence of inefficient information processing in equity markets by documenting that biases in analysts' earnings forecasts are reflected in stock prices. In particular, it shows that investors fail to fully account for optimistic bias associated with analyst disagreement. This bias arises for two reasons. First, analysts issue...
Tags: Finance, Financial Accounting, Investment, Analyst, Stock, Harvard Business School
White papers 2004-06-01
Decision Bias
Cognitive and personal decision bias creep into decision making. Bias call into question the correctness of a decision. This paper gives list of some of the more common cognitive decision biases such as a selective search for evidence - we tend to be willing to gather facts that support certain...
Tags: Decision, Tools & Techniques, Management
White papers 2008-01-01
Knowledge Measurement and Interviewer Bias
Organizations can be defined as knowledge-based systems with the objective to influence all knowledge processes. Defining and measuring the knowledge value of the company are key strategic concerns in contemporary companies. First, this paper discusses the basic knowledge measurement approaches. During the process of knowledge identification the interviewing method is...
Tags: Strategy, Refection Theory, Knowledge, Management
White papers 2005-06-29
Generalized Minimum Bias Models
This paper proposes a flexible and comprehensive approach for minimum bias models - "Generalized Minimum Bias Models"GMBM. Unlike the Generalized Linear Models GLMs that require the exponential family distribution assumption of response variables, the GMBM approach relaxes the distribution assumption. In addition, due to its model selection flexibility, it believes...
Tags: Casualty Actuarial Society
White papers 2005-01-18
Most Accountants Aren't Crooks—Why Good Audits Go Bad
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, signed into law last July, is the government's response to a series of financial reporting scandals that rocked investors. Among other measures the law offers up stiff criminal penalties for accounting fraud. But in this, it suggest most accounting errors which, aren't the result of...
Tags: Harvard Knowledgebase, Audit, Accounting, Finance, Financial Services, Operational Accounting
White papers 2002-12-09
LVMH and Morgan Stanley have agreed to end their four-year dispute regarding alleged research bias and conflicts of interest.(FINANCIAL NEWS)(LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton S.A., Morgan Stanley Group Inc.)(Brief article)
LVMH and Morgan Stanley have agreed to end their four-year dispute regarding alleged research bias and conflicts of interest. The row concerned accusations of bias from research published by ... LVMH and Morgan Stanley have agreed to end their four-year dispute regarding alleged research bias and...
Tags: financial, Morgan Stanley
Research articles 2007-02-23
Hedge Funds: The Living And The Dead
This paper examines survivorship bias in hedge fund returns by comparing two large databases. It finds that the survivorship bias exceeds 2% per year. Results of survivorship bias by investment styles indicate that the biases are different across styles. It reconcile the conflicting results about survivorship...
Tags: Finance, Financial Services, Investment, Hedge Fund, Database
White papers 2000-03-01
Bias In The Benchmarks
Benchmarking the stock market has never been more popular, primarily due to a surge in the demand for index funds over the past decade. In addition, with more than 100 equity market indexes, there are plenty of benchmarks from which to choose. However, it is important to realize that equity...
Tags: Stock, Thomson Corp., Investment, Finance
White papers 2001-02-01
Self-Regulation And Enforcement In Financial Markets: Evidence From Investor-Broker Disputes At The NASD
This paper investigates whether self-regulation in financial markets leads to greater industry bias and expertise in enforcement. Using hand-collected data on securities arbitration disputes from the National Association of Securities Dealers NASD, the author document that pro-industry arbitrators are selected more often to arbitration panels than pro-investor ones (selection on...
Tags: Financial Accounting, Government, Finance, Regulations, Arbitration, NASD, Financial Market, Financial, Self-regulation
White papers 2006-11-20
Comparison of the CRSP and Morningstar Mutual Fund Databases
This paper examines problems in the CRSP Survivor Bias Free U.S. Mutual Fund Database ~CRSP, 1998! and compares returns contained in it to those in Morningstar. The CRSP database has an omission bias that has the same effects as survivorship bias. Although all mutual funds are listed in CRSP, return...
Tags: Investment, Finance, Human Resources, Benefits, Hardware, Enterprise Software, Software, Data Management, Morningstar Inc., Storage, Databases, Retirement Plans, Mutual Funds, Mergers & Acquisitions, CRSP Database
White papers 2001-12-01
Numbers Game: Is Age Bias Prolonging Your Job Hunt?
"How long will it take to find a new job?" This often is one of the first questions many older job hunters ask when starting searches. Their severance pay usually lasts less than a year, so finding a new position before it runs out can be their biggest concern. Older...
Tags: Game, Job, Dow Jones & Company Inc., Recruitment & Selection, Human Resources, Workforce Management
White papers 2006-03-28
Welcome to the Dark Side: Hedge Fund Attrition and Survivorship Bias Over the Period 1994-2001
Hedge funds exhibit a high rate of attrition that has increased substantially over time. Using data over the period 1994-2001, the article shows that lack of size, lack of performance and an increasingly aggressive attitude of old and new fund managers alike are the main factors behind this. Although attrition...
Tags: Hedge Fund, Attrition, Finance, Financial Services, Investment
White papers 2001-12-11
A Monte Carlo Study Of Growth Regressions
This paper evaluates the bias properties of common estimators used in growth regressions derived from the Solow model. This paper suggests that using an OLS estimator applied in a single cross-section of variables averaged over time performs best in terms of the extent of bias on each of the estimated...
Tags: Stanford Knowledgebase, Networking, Telecommunications, VOIP
White papers 2003-12-01
Clinic cleared of race bias, but EKG staff upset noted. (Cleveland Clinic Foundation)
Clinic cleared of race bias, but EKG staff upset noted The U.S. Department of Labor, in its second probe of racial bias at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in the last 18 months, said it has found no evidence that the hospital discriminated against blClinic cleared...
Tags: Clinic, U.S. Department of Labor
Research articles 1990-07-16
A Performance Management Bias And Error Glossary
Performance appraisals are always sticky for everyone. While managers make an effort to be as objective as possible, there are always concerns about specific performance appraisals, and their accuracy. If you are going to evaluate your staff, then it is wise to be aware of factors that may affect your...
Tags: Performance, Performance Appraisal, Performance Management, Team Management, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Management
White papers 2003-01-01
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