In statistics, the t-statistic is a ratio of the departure of an estimated parameter from its notional value and its standard error. It is used in hypothesis testing. For example, it is used in determining the population mean from a sampling distribution of sample means if the population standard deviation is unknown.
Let be an estimator of parameter β in some statistical model. Then a t-statistic for this parameter is any quantity of the form
where β0 is a non-random, known constant which may or may not match the actual unknown parameter value β, and is the standard error of the estimator for β. By default, statistical packages report t-statistic with β0 = 0 (these t-statistics are used to test the significance of corresponding regressor). However, when t-statistic is needed to test the hypothesis of the form H0: β = β0, then a non-zero β0 may be used.