Research and Analysis I

The first course in a two-course sequence (the second course is PAF 9172) that provides an introduction to research and analytical methods as applied to public policy and management. Students will develop expertise as consumers of research findings and learn methods for designing and conducting research. This first course provides an introduction to data analysis and statistical inference, with an emphasis on policy and management applications. Topics include graphing and numerical summaries, normal distributions, descriptive correlation and regression, basic probability and sampling distributions, confidence intervals, significance tests, chi-square tests, and inference for regression. Students learn these techniques through hands-on work with real data and statistical software. Open to Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs students; others with Marxe School permission. Not open to students who have received credit for PAF 9317.