Dr Aliz Toth

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Political Science (Political Behaviour) and MSc in Political Science (Political Science and Political Economy). This course is available on the MRes/PhD in Political Science, MSc in Political Science (Conflict Studies and Comparative Politics) and MSc in Political Science (Global Politics). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Students on the Political Science and Political Economy and Political Behaviour streams of the MSc in Political Science will be granted priority access as this is a compulsory course for their programme. Other postgraduates wanting to take the course (space permitting) require the permission of the teachers responsible.

The course provides an introduction to quantitative thinking in the field of political science. Its goal is to give students the tools to ask the right questions, be sceptical when appropriate, and distinguish between useful and misleading evidence. Students will be introduced to the basic toolkit of quantitative analysis, which includes hypothesis testing, regression, experiments, differences in differences, and regression discontinuity. Students will also learn how to use a statistical software program, RStudio, to organize and analyze data through weekly problem sets.

This course is delivered through a combination of seminars and lectures totalling a minimum of 40 hours in the Autumn Term. There will be a reading week in Autumn Term Week 6.

Two problem sets.

Bueno de Mesquita, E.B. and Fowler, A., 2021. Thinking clearly with data: A guide to quantitative reasoning and analysis. Princeton University Press.

Exam (50%, duration: 2 hours) in the spring exam period.
Coursework (50%) in the AT.

The coursework will consist of a data analysis exercise using R.