KOUT 2030 - Statistical Reasoning with STATA

This course is about the core notions of quantitative research for the social sciences, based on three fundamental blocks of knowledge: quantitative data, descriptive and inferential statistics, and various forms of regression models. It covers basic empirical research design and essential statistical operations through the use of the Stata statistical software. The emphasis of the course is set on conceptual understanding and statistical reasoning, with each session applying statistical procedures (including data visualization) to real-world examples of quantitative social science data.

There are no prerequisites for this course, although a background in any social science and very basic computing skills will both prove useful in class.

The students in this course work in small groups throughout the semester in order to write up an empirical research paper that uses Stata code to perform its analysis. The course is assessed on the basis of at least one draft paper (30%) and one final paper (70%).

The course requires doing some light readings and working on the weekly code prior to each course session, and the course assessment requires working in small groups of two or three students, which involves setting up group meetings at least four times through the semester.