Performance Tuning :: Query Performance Gain Using Statistics?

Somewhere I read that we should not use hints in Oracle production environments, but we can use hints in the development environment and on achieving the desired execution plan we can adjust the 'statistics' to follow that plan without hints.

Q1. If it is true what statistics do we adjust for influencing the execution plan and how?

For example, I have the following simple query:

select e.empid, e.ename, d.dname
from emp e, dept d
where e.deptno=d.deptno;

emp.empid, emp.deptno and dep.deptno columns have indexes and the tables have the standard structure as found in the basic oracle examples.

If I look at the execution plan of the above query then I see that the driving table is empand the driven table is dept.Also the type of join that is taking place is 'Nested Loop'.

Questions: With respect to the above query,
Q 2. If I want to make dept the driving table and emp the driven table then how can I adjust the statistics to achieve that?
Q 3. If I want to use hash join instead of a nested loop join then then how can I adjust the statistics to achieve that?

I can put the ordered and the use_hash hint to effect this but again I have heard that altering statistics is a more robust way to control an execution plan as compared to hints.