1st Edition
Understanding Political Science Statistics using Stata A Manual with Exercises
This manual walks students through the procedures for analysis in Stata and provides exercises that go hand-in-hand with online data sets. The manual complements the textbook Understanding Political Science Statistics: Observations and Expectations in Political Analysis, by Peter Galderisi, making it easy to use alongside the book in a course or as a stand-alone guide to using Stata. Seljan demonstrates how to run commands in Stata for different kinds of research questions and shows the results of the analyses, using lots of annotated screenshots from Stata version 12 (but compatible with all versions, including Stata Small). Students will be guided through standard processes replete with examples and exercises to ready them for future work in political science research.
The diverse group of data sets provided include subsamples of both the 2008 and 2012 American National Election Studies, a Eurobarometer survey, single year and longitudinal congressional district files, the 2012 Comparative Congressional Election Study, and a comparative, crossnational country file. Versions with reduced case numbers and variables are also included that are compatible with Stata Small.
This manual (and a parallel SPSS manual) are available as stand-alone products or packaged with the textbook Understanding Political Science Statistics.
Biography
Ellen C. Seljan is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Lewis & Clark College.
Peter Galderisi has taught political science methods and statistics for more than three decades, and is currently a lecturer and local internship director in the Political Science Department at the University of California, San Diego. Previously, Galderisi was a Professor or Visiting Professor at Utah State, UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, and Cal State Fullerton. He specializes in U.S. political parties, campaigns and elections, American political development, interest groups, and election law.
“This manual walks students through all of the necessary components of using STATA to undertake social science research. From how to download and open a data file; to managing, coding and recoding data; as well as covering common syntax errors and providing political science–focused exercises to practice, this manual is a comprehensive resource for instructors. Thorough, easy to understand, and easy to reference, this is an excellent manual for undergraduate and first-year graduate students, as well as a useful reference for even the most seasoned STATA user.” – Suzanne Chod, North Central College
"Understanding Political Science Statistics Using Stata is an excellent, easy-to-understand, nuts-and-bolts introduction to Stata for political science undergraduate students. The guide particularly excels in its treatment and illustration of variable management and manipulation in Stata." – Brian Fogarty, University of Missouri – St. Louis
“The pragmatic, problem-centric approach of Understanding Political Science Statistics is continued in this guide, a style which serves this volume excellently. Either as a stand-alone introduction to Stata or as a companion to the main textbook, Understanding Political Science Statistics Using Stata is clearly written and easy to follow. The varied real-world political science data used, as well as the material covered, will make this manual highly useful for political science students and instructors alike.” – Jack Reilly, New College of Florida
"This is a very good ‘how-to’ manual covering applied data analysis, illustrating the use of both Stata commands and pull-down windows. The examples from both survey and aggregate data look at real research questions, including the use of sampling adjustments that are widely required today in survey data analysis, making this a great tool for students and researchers alike." – Robert Y. Shapiro, Columbia University
