17.871 | Spring 2012 | Undergraduate

Political Science Laboratory

Readings

[Freedman] = Freedman, David, Robert Pisani, and Roger Purves. Statistics. 3rd ed. W.W. Norton and Company, 1997. ISBN: 9780393970838.

[Gujarati] = Gujarati, Damodar M. Basic Econometrics. 4th ed. McGraw-Hill, 2002. ISBN: 9780071123433.

[Kellstedt] = Kellstedt, Paul M., and Guy D. Whitten. The Fundamentals of Political Science Research. Cambridge University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780521697880.

[Kohler] = Kohler, Ulrich, and Frauke Kreuter. Data Analysis Using Stata. 2nd ed. Stata Press, 2008. ISBN: 9781597180467.

[Tufte] = Tufte, Edward R. Data Analysis for Politics and Policy. Prentice Hall, 1974. ISBN: 9780131975255.

[Utts] = Utts, Jessica M., and Robert F. Heckard. Mind on Statistics. 3rd ed. Duxbury Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780534998646.

SES # TOPICS READINGS
1 Introduction No readings
2 Introduction to STATA®

“The First Time.” Chapter 1 in [Kohler].

“Working With Do-files.” Chapter 2 in [Kohler].

“The Grammar of Stata.” Chapter 3 in [Kohler].

“General Comments on the Statistical Commands.” Chapter 4 in [Kohler].

“Creating and Changing Variables.” Chapter 5 in [Kohler].

How to Use the STATA® infile and infix commands. (PDF)

3 Descriptive statistics I

“The Histogram.” Chapter 3 in [Freedman].

“The Average and the Standard Deviation.” Chapter 4 in [Freedman].

“Creating and Changing Graphs.” Chapter 6 in [Kohler].

“Describing and Comparing Distributions.” Chapter 7 in [Kohler].

How to Use the STATA® ‘merge’ command. (PDF)

Suggested Reading:

“Turning Data Into Information.” Chapter 2 in [Utts].

4 Data resources and library research  No readings
5 Descriptive statistics II “Descriptive Statistics and Graphs.” Chapter 6 in [Kellstedt].
6 Bivariate relationships I

“Bivariate Regression Models.” Chapter 9 in [Kellstedt].

Suggested Readings:

“Introduction to Data Analysis.” Chapter 1 in [Tufte].

“The Nature Of Regression Analysis.” Chapter 1 in [Gujarati].

“Two-Variable Regression Analysis: Some Basic Ideas.” Chapter 2 in [Gujarati].

“Two-Variable Regression Model: The Problem of Estimation.” Chapter 3 in [Gujarati].

“Extensions of the Two-Variable Linear Regression Model.” Chapter 6 in [Gujarati].

7 Bivariate relationships II Tufte, Edward R. Visual and Statistical Thinking: Displays of Evidence for Making Decisions. Graphics Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780961392130.
8 Multiple regression I

“Multiple Regression Models I: The Basics.” Chapter 10 in [Kellstedt].

“Introduction to Linear Regression.” Chapter 8 in [Kohler]. pp. 181–96.

Suggested Readings:

“Two-Variable Linear Regression.” Chapter 3 in [Tufte].

“Multiple Regression Analysis: The Problem of Estimation.” Chapter 7 in [Gujarati].

9 Multiple regression II

“Multiple Regression Models II: Crucial Extensions.” Chapter 11 in [Kellstedt].

Suggested Reading:

“Multiple Regression.” Chapter 4 in [Tufte].

10 Presentation of group projects No readings
11–12 Workshop and individual meetings No readings
13 Sampling and inference I “Statistical Inference.” Chapter 7 in [Kellstedt].
14 Sampling and inference II

“Bivariate Hypothesis Testing.” Chapter 8 in [Kellstedt].

Suggested Readings:

“Inference About Simple Regression.” Chapter 14 in [Utts].

“The Expected Value and Standard Error.” Chapter 17 in [Freedman].

“The Normal Approximation for Probability Histograms.” Chapter 18 in [Freedman].

“Chance Errors in Sampling.” Chapter 20 in [Freedman].

“The Accuracy of Percentages.” Chapter 21 in [Freedman].

“The Accuracy of Averages.” Chapter 23 in [Freedman].

“A Model for Measurement Error.” Chapter 24 in [Freedman].

“Tests of Significance.” Chapter 26 in [Freedman].

“More Tests for Averages.” Chapter 27 in [Freedman].

“A Closer Look at Tests of Significance.” Chapter 29 in [Freedman].

15 Make up - this is a built-in flexible day, to make up lost time if we get behind No readings
16–17 Preliminary final project presentations and work sessions – these sessions are for you to work on your project and seek help Achen, Christopher H. Interpreting and Using Regression. Sage Publications, 1982. ISBN: 9780803919150. [Preview with Google Books]
18 Short exam which will cover all the technical material in the class No readings
19–22 Preliminary final project presentations and work sessions No readings
23–26 Final project presentations No readings

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