Positive political science involves connecting our observations of the social world with causal mechanisms.  We are going to focus on a particular problem: to what extent can we used observed data to measure, discover, and test underlying causal claims?  The course will include a combination of statistical theory, hands--on data analysis, …

Political methodology is a rapidly changing and fascinating subfield of political science. From text analysis to scaling models to network models to machine learning nethods, political science sits at the forefront of applied statistical research on several fronts. This course will cover the foundations necessary to work at the fronteir of…

The overarching goal of the course is to help students move their research projects forward. Each week, one person will circulate materials two days prior to the meeting. Students will then be expected to comment on the materials prior to our meeting. The presentation will then guide our discussion through the in-person…

Why do people vote the way they do?  Can universal health insurance lead to a longer lifespan? What countries are more or less likely to erupt in civil conflict?  Assessing these questions requires the ability to think analytically about data and statistics.  This course will provide an introduction to causal inference, probability theory,…

In this summer study group, we work through Asumptotic Statistics by Aad van der Vaart in some detail.  The goal is to work through the book one proof at a time and fill in the gaps in the explication of his proofs (which are numerous).  Topics include notions of convergence of random variables, M-Estimation and local asymptotic…