Most of the course focuses on multiple regression analysis, beginning with ordinary least squares estimation, and then considers the implications and treatment of serial correlation, heteroskedasticity, specification error, and measurement error. The course also provides an introduction to simultaneous equations models, time series analysis, models for binary dependent variables, and methods for longitudinal analysis. This course teaches students how to evaluate government programs. It will focus on the respective roles of government and business in the provision of retirement security and health care. We will analyze the health care proposals of the leading presidential candidates, and subject them to principles learned in the course.
Projects range widely in policy area, level of quantitative analysis required, size, and complexity.
All projects culminate in the publication of final reports and oral presentations to the clients. This course seeks to make students sensitive to and articulate about the ways in which moral and political values come into play in the American policy process, particularly as they affect non-elected public officials who work in a world shaped by politics. Topics to be covered include the tensions between ethics and politics, an introduction to various moral theories that figure in contemporary policy debates, a consideration of the principal values that animate American politics, and issues and dilemmas in professional ethics. The course addresses issues that affect international as well as domestic policy and politics. This course focuses on the political environment within which policy analysis takes place.