Data Analysis and Politics

Data analysis is quickly changing the way we understand and engage in politics, how we implement policy, and how organizations across the world make decisions. In this course, we will learn the fundamental principles of statistical inference and develop the necessary programming skills to answer a wide range of political and policy oriented questions with data analysis. Who is most likely to win the upcoming presidential election? Do countries become less democratic when leaders are assassinated? Is there racial discrimination in the labor market? These are just a few of the questions we will work on in the course.

Students are not expected to have any prior programming knowledge or experience. The course will be centered around bite-size assignments that will help build coding and statistical skills from scratch. Students will leave the course equipped for work in any setting that requires a social scientific approach to data analysis, from policy non-profits to government, from Silicon Valley to Wall Street and beyond.
 
Course websitehttps://sites.suffolk.edu/gvt201
Syllabusgvt201a_fall2018.pdf
Textbook: Imai, Kosuke. Quantitative Social Science: An Introduction. Princeton University Press