semivarianza

Semivarianza is a statistical measure used to quantify the variability or dispersion of a dataset, similar to variance. However, unlike variance, which considers the squared differences from the mean, semivarianza focuses on the absolute differences from the mean. This makes it less sensitive to outliers compared to variance.

The formula for semivarianza is:

Semivarianza = (1/n) * Σ|x_i - μ|

where:

- n is the number of data points,

- x_i represents each individual data point,

- μ is the mean of the dataset.

Semivarianza is particularly useful in situations where the data contains outliers that could disproportionately affect the variance. It provides a more robust measure of dispersion in such cases.

In practice, semivarianza is less commonly used than variance due to its mathematical complexity and the widespread availability of variance calculations in statistical software. However, it remains a valuable tool in specific analytical contexts where robustness to outliers is crucial.