Notes for today's class

Here are the notes on evaluating theories.

Here are the notes on neorealism.

For Thursday, remember to read well into the Russett and Oneal book.

Interesting Map

Here is an interesting map of the United States based on the GDP of developing countries.

Short Introduction to Political Analysis

Here's a quick outline with links that should hopefully get you up to speed for the material in this course (originally posted, 8/25/06):

Scientific Method

A. Theory

B. Hypotheses

- Independent and Dependent Variables

C. Operationalization and Measurement

D. Testing (case studies versus quantitative methods)

- Correlation (also here) and types of relationships (negative, positive, no relationship, and spurious relationship)

E. Other issues:

1.) Because we don’t always have a random sample, there will usually be a problem of selection bias

2.) Many issues we will deal with also will have complicated causal logics, even perhaps including some endogeneity

Syllabus for PSC442 International Conflict

Follow this link to a copy of the syllabus for PSC442 International Conflict.

Short Introduction to Political Analysis

Those in my graduate class should be familiar with the material covered in this post.

Summary Statistics for Exam 2

The results are in for the second exam, and here are some brief summary statistics:

Total Number of Exams: 19
Mean score: 75.79
Modes: 74 (3 exams), 76 (3 exams) and 88 (3 exams)
Range: 54 to 88 (the full description is below)

CURVE: There is no curve for this test.

NOTE(!): I regressed the effect of attendance on overall grade for the exam. After controlling for several other factors, missing one class decreased a test score by over 3 points, on average. Attendance matters!


. tab test2

test2 | Freq. Percent Cum.
------------+-----------------------------------
54 | 1 5.26 5.26
66 | 1 5.26 10.53
68 | 1 5.26 15.79
70 | 2 10.53 26.32
72 | 1 5.26 31.58
74 | 3 15.79 47.37
76 | 3 15.79 63.16
78 | 1 5.26 68.42
82 | 2 10.53 78.95
84 | 1 5.26 84.21
88 | 3 15.79 100.00
------------+-----------------------------------
Total | 19 100.00

Class Notes -- Chapter 12 (Domestic Institutions and National Performance)

Here are notes for part of today's class.