Claudia: Thanks for the clarification as to the structure of your data. To test for a normal distribution of frequencies you must have an interval-level variable, whereas your variable (rating grade) is a categorical ordinal variable. The categories have an intrinsic order, but no quantitative value. You may, of course, assign the categories some set of arbitrary values, such as making aaa=1, aa=2, a=3, bbb=4 and so on, but with your data you have no basis for such transformation. Any other set of numeric values would be equally valid (aaa=1, aa=8, a=9, bbb=19 and so on). Therefore, what you have is the distribution of issuers over an ordinal variable with a number of ordered qualitative categories without numeric value. This cannot have a normal (or other) mathematical distribution because these distributions are defined for a quantitative or interval-level variable (such as income or age) and not for categorical ordinal variables such as rating grade. For a more impresionistic judgment SPSS may produce an histogram graph and superimpose a normal distribution. This procedure assumes the categories are equally spaced, which is not necessarily so, but may give you an idea. To produce such a graph you may use the CHART menu, or the graph options in FREQUENCIES, and later edit the chart to add the normal curve.

Hector

> -----Original Message----- > From: Claudia Beinert [mailto:claudia.beinert@confirm-md.de] > Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2004 4:47 AM > To: Hector Maletta > Subject: Re: Data > > > Hi Hector, > > (a) the Structure of my data is exactly as I wrote: All I > have, are the values of the frequency distribution. Therefore > I know, that 60 Issuers have the rating grade AAA, 200 > Issuers have AA...and so on. All the 2.000 Issuers with the > Rating grades from AAA til C are one Column. Every new > Column is a new year in my data file. My problem is a data > problem: I actually need the data in that form (table 1), > that SPss can test for a certain form of distribution: > > No.Issuer Rating grade > 1 aaa > 2 bb > 3 c > 4 aaa > 5 a > 6 aaa > 8 aaa > 9 bb > 10 aaa > > > But all I have is (table 2): > > Rating Grade Frequency > aaa 5 Issuers > a 1 Issuer > bb 2 Issuer > c 1 Issuer > > > My question: is there a possibility, that spss can take the > data as in table 2 to test for a distribution..or do i have > to convert them at first, that they look like in table 1. > > (b) I chose Kol-Smirnow, because I want to test, if the > freqency -distribution for all Issuers over the rating grades > are normally distributed. So the fixed value I am testing ist > the normal distribution. If I already know that the > distribution is normal, i can than take the one-sample-t-test > to test for a fixed value, but that's not what I want. > > Thanks for your help > > Kind regards, > Mit freundlichen Grüßen > > Claudia Beinert > _______________________ > Leiterin Produktentwicklung > ConFiRM GmbH > Hegelstr. 18 > 39104 Magdeburg > > Tel. ++49(0) 391/ 254 9997 > Fax. ++49(0) 391/254 9999 > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Hector Maletta" <hmaletta@fibertel.com.ar> > To: "'Claudia Beinert'" <claudia.beinert@confirm-md.de> > Sent: Monday, August 16, 2004 5:47 PM > Subject: RE: Data > > > > Claudia, > > Your message does not make clear (a) the structure of your > data file > > and > (b) > > what exactly you want to test. > > > > Regarding 1: You may have a data file with one variable for each of > > the categories (i.e. one column for AAA, one column for AA, one for > > BBB, > etc.), > > or you may have one single column for the category (with > values AAA, > > AA, > A, > > BBB, BB etc.) or you may have one column for the category cited as > > "first" (AAA, AA, A), one column for the second (BBB, BB, B) and so > > on. > > > > Regarding 2: what do you mean by "testing it with one-sample > > Kolmogorov-Smirnov"? Against which you'd test your data? > You may want > > to know whether the frequency for AAA is significantly > different from > > the frequency for BBB, and so on for every pair of categories (too > > many > pairs), > > or you may want to test whether the observed frequencies as a whole > > are different from the expected random frequencies (which should be > > uniform > for > > all categories, I suppose), or what else? > > > > By the way, one-sample tests indicate whether an observed > measure (for > > instance, an average for an interval variable) is significantly > > different from a value arbitrarily fixed by the researcher (for > > instance, whether > the > > average income in your sample is significantly different from > > $20,000). > This > > arbitrary external value may come, for instance, from some other > > research > or > > from national accounts or census data, or whatever you want > to compare > your > > data with. From your question it is no0t clear why you should be > > applying this kind of test. > > > > So you better clarify, to see whether somebody can help. > > > > Hector > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On > > > Behalf Of Claudia Beinert > > > Sent: Monday, August 16, 2004 12:31 PM > > > To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU > > > Subject: Data > > > > > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > I would like to test a Frequency from the rating industry like > > > > > > AAA : 60 Issuers > > > AA : 200 Issuer > > > A : 800 Issuer > > > BBB : 500 Issuer > > > BB : 500 Issuer > > > ... : an so on > > > > > > > > > with One-Sample-Kolmog.-Smirnov-Test for Normal distribution. > > > > > > Is there in way in SPss (I am running version 11.0) to > test the data > > > given above without typing in each single issuer? > > > > > > Kind regards an Thanks for your help. > > > > > > Claudia Beinert > > > _______________________ > > > Leiterin Produktentwicklung > > > ConFiRM GmbH > > > Hegelstr. 18 > > > 39104 Magdeburg > > > Germany > > > > > > >