POL 501. Introductory Statistics for Public Policy Short description: This is the first of two required methodology courses for the Masters of Public Policy program at Stony Brook. The main purpose of the course is to teach student to understand the basics steps in the research process. We begin with an explanation of research design so that students can see how a research question may be answered. Once the framework for research is established the students learn some basic statistics for describing variables and the relationships between variables. The second half of the course gives the students a wide range of statistical tools and spends a lot of time using them with the statistical software package MINITAB. By the end of the course, the students are capable of collecting, organizing, and analyzing data.Short description: As the second required methodology course for the Masters of Public Policy program, this course introduces students to more advanced statistical techniques. Students will learn how to think about theoretical problems in terms of statistical models. Students will learn the basics of hypothesis testing, OLS regression models, and some extensions of the basic regression model. Students should have taken POL 501 and understand the basics of research design, data management, and bivariate statistics. The algebra skills needed for POL 501 will be sufficient for this class, but we will use them a lot more. POL 602. Probability Theory and Statistics Short description: This course is the first of three required methods courses by Stony Brook PhD students. Students are provided with an introduction to the theory and practice of quantitative data analysis techniques. Most of the course will focus on probability theory and mathematical statistics. The primary objective is to provide the foundation that will be necessary for POL 603 and POL 604.Short description: This is an advanced course in quantitative research methods meant for PhD students only. The course introduces students to time series methods and to the applications of these methods in political science. The focus of the class will be on applications and the use of political data measured over time. We will briefly study the calculus of finite differences before moving on to study stationary ARMA models. We will learn how to construct univariate and multivariate models and how to use them in political analyses and forecasting. We will study regression techniques using time series data as well as Box-Jenkins methods. We will also study some more recent advances in time series analysis including cointegration, error correction models, ARCH, GARCH, and ARFIMA methods. We will also spend some time learning about emerging methods for studying time varying relationships such as repeated cross-sectional analysis and dynamic conditional correlations. We will end the class with 2 weeks on pooled cross-sectional analysis.
POL 616. Political Parties and Interest Groups Short description: This is a PhD course focusing primarily on American parties and interest groups but with some time spent looking at political parties in other advanced democracies. The primary goals of the course are to assist students in understanding the role of political parties and interest groups in American politics, to give the students practice in critical thinking about research, and to have them prepare a research design that will study some aspect of political parties or interest groups. |
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