Data Analytic Regional Studies

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This practical, skills-based course aims to give students a solid foundation in the acquisition, analysis, interpretation and presentation of quantitative data. The course begins by taking a step back from data to discuss the nature of the social scientific enterprise, with a special focus on causal inference. After building a solid foundation in descriptive statistics, we’ll discuss the challenges of research with observational data. We’ll spend a lot of time discussing and thinking about the central problem of endogeneity, and after diving into probability theory, we’ll begin to develop the tools to develop and test hypotheses. While we’ll be engaging with some of the most fundamentally bedeviling questions of social science, the focus throughout the course will be on conceptual understanding and applied, practical skills.