Analysis of Political Data I

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

How do political scientists know what they know about politics? How can politics be studied scientifically? How do researchers frame and test hypotheses? How do they collect and analyze data? The goal of this class is to prepare the students to write an applied empirical research paper on any political phenomenon. Students will develop an understanding of multivariate linear regression, with a particular emphasis on applying the tools to analyze public policy problems and knowing how to interpret the results. Through this course students will understand research methods and be able to formulate statistically testable hypotheses; interpret the results of multivariate linear regressions and think critically about the potential problems that arise when trying to draw conclusions from such results, including omitted variable bias, multicollinearity, interaction effects and transforming variables; and use Stata or R to conduct statistical analyses.