Quantitative Analysis I

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Quantitative Analysis I

PBAF 527 — Winter 2005

Syllabus

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• Description
• Required Text
• Software
• Some Tips About This Class
• Course Requirements
• Grading

Description

This course is the first in a two-course sequence aimed at helping you to become informed users and critical consumers of research and statistical analyses. By the end of this course, you will:

Gain an understanding of research and statistical analyses as ways to explore, describe, or explain phenomena of managment or policy concern;
• Demonstrate your ability to frame a testable research question;
• Use descriptive statistics and statistical inference to addess policy or management problems;
• Understand the meaning of analyses using confidence intervals, test statistics, and p-values;
• Recognize the implications of the quality and quantity of data and randomization for the certainty of results and the ability to answer research questions;
• Appreciate the implications of data aggregation decisions for doing analyses, how these decisions may influence analytic results, and, thus, the understanding of policy or management problems;
• Demonstrate your ability to use Excel to produce results and your capacity to write about those results in a manner that is easily understood by a non-technical policy audience.

In sum, our goal is for you to understand enough theory and have enough experience to intelligently use real world data to arrive at reasonable conclusions in your own analyses. Furthermore, you will able to digest and critically assess empirical evidence that you may encounter. Throughout the course, we will examine policy questions and related data in order to learn how to apply analytic techniques.

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Required Text

The text for the course is Statistics 9th Edition by James T. McClave and Terry Sincich (Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2003). The text is available from the University Bookstore.

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Software

We will be mainly using SPSS to complete class assignments, including the policy report. We'll also take advantage of Microsoft Excel for some of it statistical functions, using each package for what it does best. Excel usually comes with the Microsoft Office Package. If you want to buy the software, both Excel and SPSS are available from the University Bookstore Computer Outlet. You can use both Excel and SPSS in the computer lab at the Evans school or at the Center for Social Science Research Computation and Research (CSSCR). CSSCR, located in the basement of Savery Hall, has a help desk that is willing and able to help you with computer and software-related questions.

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Some Tips About This Class

Keep up with the reading and the homework. Try very hard to keep up with material as it is presented to you. In most cases, later learning is highly dependent upon a good understanding of the earlier material. Furthermore, do the reading in the chapter before you come to class. Hearing the material after having read it will help things make sense to you. Attend class regularly, keep up with your assignments, and frequent the weekly review sessions.

Ask questions. If you do not understand something, ask questions about it in class or in the review session. Usually, you are not the only one who has the same question.

Study in groups. A good way of learning this material is to discuss the material with someone else. To that end, I recommend you form a study group with whom you review your responses to problem sets prior to handing them in. Set a time regular time to meet. Ask questions among yourselves. Seeing material from the perspectives of others will help you to formulate your understanding of the better. For each homework assignment, you should hand in your own work after having reviewed your responses to the problems with your group.

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Course Requirements

The purpose of the homework assignments is to give you practice in applying the concepts you learn in class and from your reading. Because they are practice, homework assignments are graded with a check, check minus, or check plus. No late homework will be accepted, mainly because on the due date I'll be handing out an answer key. Try to start the homework on the day it is made available to you, usually the first day the material covered by that homework is discussed in class. That way, as you learn the concepts you can also be working through the homework.day of class.

Class Participation. Your active involvement in the material in class will help you to learn it better. You can participate by engaging in group work during class sessions, asking questions in class, helping to answer other students' questions in class, and by participating in a study group. You can ask questions in class that help you to work on the homework. You can submit questions by email prior to class as you learn the material. For each class, 5 people will be asked to submit to me 2 items by email. First, they will submit questions they had after doing the reading or talking to their classmates about the material for that week. Second, they will submit one or two sentences on what they learned from the reading or their study group. I will assign people to this role after the first day of class.

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Grading

Homework assignments (complete and on time)	10%
Class Participation	10%
Mid-term (quasi-take home, open book and notes)	20%
Final (in class, open book and notes)	20%
Policy Report	40%
	100%

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