M. J. Rosenfeld. 2007. THE AGE OF INDEPENDENCE: Interracial Unions, Same-Sex Unions and the Changing American Family. Harvard University Press. Available (in paperback) now from Amazon.com. You can also find the book, along with a selection from the text and the index, at the Harvard University Press website.

     The Age of Independence is a book which offers a new theory of family trends and social change in the US. The argument revolves around the independent life stage, a life stage which has emerged since 1960. Young adults experience the independent life stage after they have left their parents' homes, but before they have settled down to start their own family. During the independent life stage young men and women go away to college, travel, begin careers, and enjoy a period of relative social independence.
     The rise of the independent life stage has reduced parental control over the dating and mate selection choices of their children. The decline of parental supervision and control results in a sharp rise in interracial and same-sex unions, the kind of unions that previous generations of parents were able to prevent. Although most Americans and many scholars believe that young adults are returning home to the parental nest in ever greater numbers (a phenomenon the press has dubbed 'the boomerang effect'), this widely held perception has it exactly backwards. In fact what really distinguishes modern family life from previous eras is the new independence (geographic, residential, and social) of young adults from their families of origin.

     Until very recently, individual level census data from the past had never been available for scholarly analysis. What we knew about family life in the past came from diaries, from the official records of a few towns and churches, or from travel writers such as Tocqueville. Now that we have individual level census records from 1850 through 2000, we are able to look into long term trends in family life in a way that inevitably must cast some of our previous assumptions aside. I use the newly available census data to describe the rise of the independent life stage, and the sharp increase in the number of interracial and same-sex unions in recent years. My analysis of census data offers a new explanation for why the tumult of the industrial revolution failed to produce an increase in nontraditional unions: most families in the industrial revolution moved to cities and factory towns together, so the basic structure of parental supervision over young adults was maintained.
     By placing the post-1960 family changes in a long term historical and demographic context, I am able to offer a new perspective on the dramatic recent diversification in American family forms. I use in-depth interviews to explore the life histories of families and couples, and to illustrate the role that the independent life stage plays in social change.
     Same-sex marriage is one of the most divisive issues of our times. My book attempts to answer several questions related to same-sex marriage. First, why now? Why has the climate for gay rights in the U.S. changed so much in the past few years? Second, what next? What do the historical precedents and current demographic trends portend for the future of same-sex marriage in the US?
     The independent life stage has implications beyond the rise of nontraditional unions, which after all are still a small minority of all couples in the US. Because parents raise their children with their future independence in mind, parents raise their children differently, and these differences affect how we all think about individual freedoms.

Information for the Press, and prior media coverage:

     Related Figures and Data:
      * A figure and worksheet describing the increasing percentage of American couples that are interracial, by several definitions of interracial.
      * A figure and worksheet describing the increasing number of interracial and same-sex couples in the US.
      * A figure and worksheet describing the decreasing support in the US for laws against interracial marriage.
      * Figures on the phantom boomerang, describing the rise of independent living which is the opposite of the boomerang theory that is so widely believed. Now updated with new figures 4 and 5 showing the rise of solo living among men and women of all ages (but especially senior women).

     PRESS Attention for the book:
      *KGO Radio San Francisco, David Lazarus show, 1/20/2007
      *Chicago Tribune, cover story, "A Cultural Taboo Fades" on the rise of intermarriage, March 11, 2007
      *USA Today, "Boomerang Generation Mostly Hype," on the growing independence of young adults, March 14, 2007.
      *Featured on NBC national nightly news with Brian Williams, in their series on the "State of Our Unions," March 29, 2007, see the story and the video here. The video seems to work better with IE than Firefox...
      *USA Today, "Free as a Bird and Loving It: Being Single Has Its Benefits," April 12, 2007
      *AP National News, picked up by many papers including the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Interracial Marriages Surge Across the US" April 13, 2007, another link is here.
      *WAOK talk radio Atlanta, Shelley Wynter show, April 13, 2007
      *Kieran Healy, blogging at Crooked Timber has some lovely things to say about my book and about the age of independence, and about David Brooks' typical misunderstanding of the independence of young adulthood.
      *KZSU radio Lunch Special show, hosted by Byrd, July 2,2007, interview (a 13 minute section of the hour long show, in mp3 format, 4.5MB).
      *I was a guest on Jefferson Public Radio's Jefferson Express show on October 5 (link provides audio files for the last 10 episodes only...)
      *I was quoted in a cover story in the Sunday Oregonian, Sept 23, 2007, titled "Marriage Today: Fewer I do's and more just I's," but no web link is currently available.
      *I was quoted in a December 14, 2007 story in The Indian Express, about intermarriage and Indian-Americans.
      *I was the September 13, 2009 guest on KALW's Sunday morning Philosophy Talk show, talking about the postmodern family.
      *On the subject of whether the recession is leading more single young people to live with their parents, I was quoted at length in a June 27, 2010 article by Kathleen Lynn.
      *I participated in a New York Times debate on the Boomerang generation, December 27, 2011.
      *USA Today story on marriage aspirations of singles from February 1, 2012, quoted me.
      * I was quoted in a New York Times piece on arranged marriages and love marriages, January 20, 2013.

      *On the subject of Barack Obama and multiracial America, I was cited in an interesting story by Charles Lewis in Canada's National Post, June 7, 2008. Obama's electoral success so far means this particular conversation about race and multiraciality will continue. In the New York Times coverage of Barack Obama's inauguration, in the January 21 2009 edition, Jodi Kantor wrote an interesting story about Obama's multiracial ancestry, which quoted me.

     On the rise of Interracial Marriage and Multiraciality in the US:
      *In recognition of the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 Supreme Court decision which ruled all state bans against interracial marriage unconstitutional, there were several stories, including:
      *Washington Post, Love is Colorblind, June 9, 2007
      *Stanford Report, "Nontraditional Unions got boost from Changing Family Structure, Sociologist Says," June 13, 2007
      *The Virginian-Pilot, "Mixed-Race Marriage Gained Legal Status in Virginia 40 Years Ago," June 10, 2007
      *If you have a print edition of the July, 2007 Cosmo, you'll find me on page 27.
      *The USA Today quoted me in a November 8, 2011 story on the rise of interracial marriage in the US.
     *In memory of the May, 2008 passing of Mildred Loving, one of the litigants in Loving v. Virginia, syndicated columnist Clarence Page wrote a nice column which cited me and which makes the relevant connection between the debate over same-sex marriage today and the legacy of Loving v. Virginia.
     * The Brooklyn (New York) Historical Society has a new exhibit, in the museum and online, called "Crossing Border, Bridging Generations," which includes an exhibit by me, called "Interracial Brooklyn."

      *The evidence shows that same-sex couples do a perfectly fine job raising children. These couples need all the rights and recognition and obligations of marriage. See my June 19, 2008 Op-Ed in the Sacramento Bee. See also my paper on "Nontraditional Families and Childhood Progress Through School."

     PRESS Attention for the "How Couples Meet" study, including stories on relationships, dating and web dating, and Valentines Day stories:
>      * USA Today, a nice story by Sharon Jayson on friends, the Web, and How Couples Meet. Feb 11, 2010.
      * Stanford Report, a feature story on How Couples Meet, with video. Feb 11, 2010.
      * San Jose Mercury News, "Growing Number of Singles Find Their Valentines Online," Feb 14, 2010.
      * CNN, "Mom's Post on 'Date My Single Kid' ", July 19, 2010.
      * NPR, "Computers are Becoming Cupid's Best Weapon," story by Jennifer Ludden August 16, 2010
      * Reuters news wire, Aug 16, 2010
      * Radio Nacional de Colombia, Aug 16, 2010
      * The Economist Magazine ran a story, "Love at First Byte" in their December 29, 2010 issue (hyperlink currently unreliable).
      * I was a guest on the hour-long radio show City Visions, hosted by KALW in San Francisco on February 14, 2011 (Valentine's Day). Link currently unavailable.
      * The Discovery Chanel ran a story, "Does Online Dating Work?" on Feb 11, 2011, and the the story was picked up by ABC News the next day.
      *The New York Times quoted me in a story "Love, Lies, and What They Learned" on November 12, 2011.
      *Stanford Alumni Magazine had a Valentine's Day (2012) Blog post about my research.

     PRESS Attention for the study of children raised by same-sex couples:
    * Stanford Report, a feature story on children raised by same-sex couples, with video, Aug 30, 2010
    * UPI coverage of the same story
    * My study of children raised by same-sex couples was cited in The Times of London, Oct 23, 2010, but the article is behind a pay-only firewall..
    * Work on the outcomes of children raised by same-sex couples has come under scrutiny since several of the Supreme Court justices raised (ill-informed) questions about this research during the oral arguments over the Proposition 8 and DOMA cases. See this interesting story in the LA Times from April 6, 2013.

     On the subject of changing American public opionion towards gay rights and gay marriage
    * I was quoted in a March 16, 2013 story in the Allentown Morning Call.

Other Scholarly Publications:

M. J. Rosenfeld, 2010. "Nontraditional Families and Childhood Progress Through School" in Demography, Volume 47 (3): 755-775 (Copyright 2010 Population Association of America, reprinted here with permission). See also the supplementary table (summarizing prior small-sample studies of children raised by same-sex couples) which is supposed to be available on Demography's website as well..
      * Because this paper is the only paper in the literature which compares children raised by same-sex couples to children raised by other types of families, using large sample nationally representative data, this paper's results were discussed in depth during the hearing phase of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, Federal district court 2010 (the case which puts the constitutionality of the anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8 on trial). See link to transcript of day 5 of the trial here. The judge ultimately struck down Proposition 8 (though appeals are pending).
      * My paper on children raised by nontraditional families was subject to a comment in Demography (forthcoming, 2013) by Allen et al. My response (also forthcoming in Demography) to Allen et al is linked here, or here.

Syllabus

Articles on the reading list (external links accessible to Stanford users only)
Shammas, "Anglo American Household Government in Comparative Perspective" (I recommend that you download and print)
Arnett and Taber, "Adolescence Terminable and Interminable" (read in HTML or click on the PDF version, then print)
Rosenfeld and Kim, "The Independence of Young Adults and the Rise of Interracial and Same-Sex Unions"
Rosenfeld, "Young Adulthood as a Factor in Social Change in the US"

Questions for each reading

Student presentation schedule

Readings available online:
Kinder and Sears, 1981: "Prejudice and Politics"
Bobo, 1983: "Whites' Opposition to Busing"

Guide on how to present

Syllabus

Final exam: Thursday, Dec 13, 3:30-6:30P, per the Registrar.

Questions for each reading assignment.

What is expected of in-class and in-section presenters

Soc 255 in-class presenters:

Legal Decisions relating to contraception and abortion:
*Griswold v Connecticut, US Supreme Ct 1965 (the first supreme court ruling that famously cited individual privacy rights, struck down Connecticut's law which prevented even married couples from purchasing birth control).
*Eisenstadt v Baird, US Supreme Ct 1972 (struck down a Massachusetts law which had prevented unmarried persons from accessing birth control, thereby expanding the Griswold decision).
*Roe v Wade, US Supreme Ct 1973 (guaranteed abortion rights and forced all 50 states to legalize first trimester abortions, and second trimester abortions with some limitations).

Sodomy Cases:
*Bowers v Hardwick, US Supreme Ct, 1986 (upheld Georgia's anti-sodomy law).
*Lawrence v Texas, US Supreme Ct, 2003 (reversed the Bowers decision and struck down Texas's anti-sodomy law, and by extension all the state laws against sodomy).

Marriage Cases:
*Perez v Sharp, California Supreme Ct 1948 (struck down California's anti-intermarriage law, and set a precedent for similar action in other states).
*Loving v Virginia, US Supreme Ct 1967 (struck down Virginia's law against racial intermarriage, helped establish marriage as a fundamental right, and by extension made all the state laws against interracial marriage unenforceable). Take a look at this interesting map of which states had laws against interracial marriage, and when.
*Turner v Safley, US Supreme Ct 1987 (found, among other things, that prisoners had an inalienable right to marry).
*Baehr v Miike, Hawaii trial, 1996 (the first trial of same-sex marriage rights where the state had to meet a high standard of evidence for why they wanted to deny same-sex couples the right to marry; the court's decision was a victory for same-sex couples).
*Baehr v Miike, Hawaii reversal after state constitutional amendment, 1999 (after the state of Hawaii passed a constitutional amendment to make same-sex marriage illegal in Hawaii).
*Baker v State, Vermont, 2000 (the decision that forced Vermont to adopt same-sex union rights for gay couples).
*In Re Gardiner, Kansas, 2002 (the decision that voided that marriage of Gardiner and Ball because of Ball's previous sex change).
*Goodridge v Dept Public Health, MA 2003 (the decision that forced Massachusetts to adopt full marriage equality for same-sex couples).
*Varnum v Brien, Iowa 2009 (the decision that has brought marriage equality to Iowa).

The Four California same-sex marriage cases:
*Lockyer v. San Francisco, California 2004 (ordering San Francisco to stop marrying same-sex couples and nullifying the marriage of same-sex couples at San Francisco city hall until the court could rule on the constitutionality of California's same-sex marriage ban).
*In Re Marriage Cases, California, 2008 (deciding that California's same-sex marriage ban was inconsistent with California's constitution, forcing the state to allow same-sex couples to marry)
*Strauss v Horton, California 2009 (acknowledging the legality of Proposition 8, which amended the California constitution to redefine marriage as only between a man and a woman, but the decision also upheld the legality of the same-sex marriages performed in California in 2008).
*Perry v. Schwarzenegger, US district court 2010 (overturning California's Proposition 8, because it violated US constitutional protections. This decision will be appealed, so list of California same-sex marriage cases will undoubtedly grow).

First draft of potential final exam questions (updated for Spring 2009)

First draft of potential midterm questions (updated for fall 2009)
Midterm grade distribution fall 2010.

Preliminary Instructions for the GSS paper project (updated Nov 3, 2009)

Some Additional Relevant Links:

Judith Stacey's "Good Riddance to the Family"
David Popoenoe's "Two-Parent Families Are better"
Moynihan's 1965 Report on "The Negro Family"
A 1995 US Dept. Health and Human Services Report on Unmarried Childbearing
A 2003 US Census report on Marriage and Cohabitation
An international comparison of Non-Marital Fertility Rates
Smith, Morgan, and Cox paper on Nonmarital fertility
Ruggles paper on history of black family structure

Two graphs to get you thinking about life course versus historical and cohort effects, from the 2000 CPS. Mean income by age and gender, and mean education by age and gender.. Figures for health status by age are here.

A Pew Report with interesting findings on on the time use of husbands and wives, 2011 compared to 1965.

Syllabus

Supplemental Reading list, and list of student presentation and discussion schedule, which will be changing as the class goes on and as presenters make changes to the reading lists that they will be presenting.

Some guidelines about how to approach and interpret scholarly work.

Syllabus

First homework assignment, due Oct 9

Second homework assignment due Oct 18, see the links page for the dataset.. Homework 3 (due October 30) is here, see class notes on how to download the data. I have also posted instructions for the abstract and final paper (NOTE updated due dates and instructions).

Soc 149/249
Urban Studies 112

Syllabus

Soc 249 in-class presenters:

• Jan 17, Jennifer Hill
• Jan 31, Charmaine Mangram
• Feb 12, Adrian LeCesne
  
• Feb 14, Tiana Moore
• Feb 19, Erika Johnson
• Feb 21, Gina Shalavi
• Feb 26, Shannon Mulloy
• Mar 5, Hannah Grune

Questions for the Assigned Readings

New: Instructions for the Social Explorer Draft and Paper

What is expected of in-class and in-section presenters.

Study guides for the exams, based on last year's exams:
Sample midterm questions (updated for 2009)
midterm grade histogram 2013 (new)

Sample final exam questions (Now updated for winter 2010)

Moynihan's 1965 report, The Negro Family: The Case For National Action, published by the US Dept. of Labor (PDF file, 4MB). See also a brief profile of Stanford Alumnus Charles Ogletree, who describes the student protest against Moynihan at the 1975 Stanford graduation, and also briefly mentions his involvement in a suit for reparations for the 1921 Tulsa riot.

Links to reports on HOPE VI, the 1990s housing policy which included tearing down the worst high rise public housing projects:
A Brookings Report by Turbov and Piper
An Urban Institute/Brookings report by Popkin et al
A Critique by Venkatesh and Celimli
An Urban Institute brief report by Buron
An Urban Institute brief report by Popkin, Eiseman, and Cove
More recent links to Urban Institute studies based on a longitudinal cohort of Chicago residents uprooted from the old high rise housing projects by Hope VI.

One NBER link to a 2006 report on the Moving to Opportunity housing voucher experiment (by Sanbonmatsu et al).

A report by Glaeser and Vigdor of the Manhattan Institute on the decline of racial segregation in the US from 1970 to 2010. See also the "% black" maps by Remapping Debate, using Social Explorer using census 2010.

Three terrific undergraduate student theses from recent years that I will refer to in the class.
1) Kelsey Finch's Trouble in Paradise: Postwar History of San Francisco's Hunters Point Neighborhood, copyright 2008 Kelsey Finch.
2) Jackelyn Hwang's Perceptions and Borders of the Changing Neighborhood: A Case Study in Philadelphia, copyright 2007 Jackelyn Hwang. For citation or use outside of Soc 149/249/ Urb 112, you must get permission from Jackelyn Hwang.
br> 3) Gerad Hanono's California Dreamin': Examining the Legacy of the Great Tax Revolt in Chula Vista, California, Copyright 2012 Gerad Hanono.

Links relating to welfare reform:
See various working papers from the Three City Study including Andrew Cherlin's paper, "The Consequences of Welfare Reform for Child Well-Being"
See also Cherlin et al 2002, paper from Social Service Review (accessible to Stanford students only)
And see also Rebecca Blank's thorough summary and evaluation of welfare reform.

Robert Moses's response to Caro's biography of him.

In relation to Robert Moses and in relation to the broader question of how eminent domain is used in the US, see the 2005 Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London.

Where are the Rivers (real name Walton) children now and what is Kotlowitz up to? See this Chicago Tribune story from Aug 14, 2011.

An interesting graphical demonstration of wealth inequality in the US.

Some overheads from class are replicated here, so you don't have to copy them down. Introduction to some of the basic ideas in the class. A figure on transitional neighborhoods and neighborhood turnover, based on the game theory analysis of American economist Thomas Schelling. Timelines: Chicago time line, and Civil Rights time line. Notes on Marxist views of history. Outline of the Culture of Poverty ideas. My notes on neighborhood effects, and an illustrative simulation (in pdf format; an excel version that is easier to play with is here) of what the segregation indices mean. My notes on different causes of segregation are here. Further notes on the effects of segregation. My notes on free market economics and mortgage lending are here. A pdf figure which describes gerrymandering and reverse gerrymandering (and a powerpoint version of the same gerrymandering slides). Two excellent maps of Chicago, prepared by Victor Thompson, are now available. There is the neighborhood map (especially useful as a companion to Hirsch's book), and the map of Black residential concentration. Two graphs of black-white income differences are here.

You can generate your own population maps, with the Social Explorer website.

How progressive is the US Income tax (in theory)? See the history of marginal tax rates.

Weblinks with more up-to-date information about residential segregation in the US (links open in separate windows) with thanks to students Ashley Daly and Katherine Lee.
* A Census Bureau report, "Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation in the United States: 1980-2000"
* The Lewis Mumford Center, with various reports on segregation.
* The Civil Rights Center at Harvard University.
* Stanford's CCSRE has various reports on local diversity and segregation.

Student notes:

Syllabus

Final exam scheduled for Monday, Dec 10, 3:30-6:60 per the Registrar.

Guidelines for the Soc 381 presentation and proposal.

Soc 381 presentation schedule

Guidelines for working together on home work

My notes on research terminology and types of bias are here. This page will be undergoing regular revision during the class, so be sure to check back. Newly added: my notes on the mean, the variance, and simple statistics (these notes under construction). An Excel file on means and standard errors (will be updated regularly and note: the Excel file is not formatted for printing). Freedman's and Rice's statistical distribution tables from the back of the books (includes the T and Z distributions, plus also chisquare and F distributions). My notes on what changes and what doesn't change in regression when you change the inputs.

* On the age-period-cohort problem see these graphs created from cross-sectional data: Education by age, and Income by age.

* On the subject of data presentation with maps, see these area-weighted cartographs of election results. On the subject of Tufte an data presentation, see Peter Norvig's parody of Powerpoint using the Gettysburg Address.

* Materials relating to a famous debate about the influence of outliers. 1) Jasso's original article on coital frequency. 2) Kahn and Udry's critique. 3) Jasso's response.

* Some addition literature we may read later in the quarter:
* "The Earth is Round" by Jacob Cohen, on Null Hypothesis testing and Bayesian inference
* Lisse et al's 2003 paper from the Annals of Internal Medicine on the hazards of Vioxx (Rofecoxib), for a discussion of the dangers that can befall us when we don't take the power of tests into account.
* Two papers by Rosenfeld here and here that include logistic regression, for examples of how to (and how not to) present logistic regression results.
* More papers with good/useful logistic regression output tables: Gould on collective violence in ASR 1999 and Brines and Joyner on couple dissolution also in ASR 1999.
* On the subject of what to do when sampling fraction is 1 (see Rice p. 194 for definition of sampling fraction), see blog posts by Statistician Andrew Gelman here and here, and see this paper by Desbiens.

*The dataset for HW 1, and most of the rest of the homeworks is the 2000 March CPS dataset (14MB, Stata 10 version). Right-click to download the data files. I include here some housekeeping procedures I have done to the March CPS file which may helpful to you when you work with your own CPS files.

My own brief Introduction to STATA, contains lots of key information.

* The first assignment for the quantitative part of the class is HW1.
* As part of HW 1, you will be required to register with ipums CPS, and download a dataset of your own

* HW 2 assignment.
* HW3 assignment is now available.
* HW4 assignment Has Been Updated (so make sure you have the latest version), datasets for HW4: Anscombe's data (Excel format) and a 50-state CPS dataset (Stata format).

A link for CPI inflation data.

The variables and their descriptions are best located at the website www.ipums.org, where the data come from. You will find that ipums is easy to navigate and has lots of relevant information. You can register for free and create your own dataset. For class purposes, I will be using
* ipums variable descriptions for CPS
* and ipums introduction to the CPS methodology

Fall 2012 class logs:
* First class log (tabulate and summarize)
* Second class log (table, summarize, aspects of variables, and ingestion of new datasets).
* Third class, no log.
* Fourth class log (on t-tests, regression, and the T and Normal distributions)
* Fifth class log (on regression and T-tests under changes of scale and under different assumptions about weights and variance)
* Sixth class log (on dummy variables, regression, and box plots)
* Three logs relating to graphs, dfbetas, and residuals from class 12: a log on graphing the anscombe data, a log on graphing the 50-state data (including answering a question about the units of dfbetas), and a link to a previous 50 state log that has the graph embedded.

Fall 2011 class logs:
* First class log (tabulate, summarize, memory)
* Second class log (generate new variables, dealing with labels and missing values, how to import data)
* Third class, no Stata log
* Fourth class (T and Normal distributions, hypothesis tests, regressions with weights)
* Fifth class (use and syntax for dummy variables)
* Sixth class (box plots and distributions)
* Seventh class, no Stata log
* Eighth class (more on regression fits, linearity and additivity), see also my updated Excel file
* Ninth class (more on T and Normal distribution probabilities)
* Tenth class (a first look at graphing in Stata)
* Eleventh class (graphs and dfbetas)

Last year's (2010) class logs for reference:
* First class log, (tabulate, summarize, memory, etc)
* Second class log (creating new variables, dealing with missing values, creating labels, another look at income and educational differences)
* No log from class 3
* Class 4 log (on t-tests with equal and unequal variance, weighted and unweighted regression)
* Class 5 log (on summary statistics and t-tests of random sub-samples. Also ran a box plot and histogram)
* Class 6 log (on dummy variables and regression)
* Class 7 log (on regression lines, slopes and scatter plots)
* Class 8 log (degrees of freedom, interactions, and fitted values)
* Class 9 log (what changes and what doesn't change in regression when the inputs change)
* Class 10 log (first look at plots, and residual plots with Anscombe's data)
* Class 11 log (on predicted values, outliers, and dfbetas)
* Class 12 log (a brief intro to logistic regression...)
* Class 13 log (fun with stepwise regression)
* Class 14 log (a bit on jackknife and robust standard errors)
* Class 15 log (a few words about the chisquare, see also my updated Excel file and my notes on the mean, variance, and sample statistics)

Introduction to Data Analysis (for Undergraduates)

Syllabus

Guidelines for the Soc 280B presentation and proposal.

Soc 280B presentation schedule (upload to Coursework one week before presentation)

Guidelines for working together on home work

Key Materials you will need for class, which we will be referring to all quarter long:

My own brief Introduction to STATA, contains lots of key information.

My notes on research terminology and types of bias are here. This page will be undergoing regular revision during the class, so be sure to check back. Newly added: my notes on the mean, the variance, and simple statistics (these notes under construction). An Excel file on means and standard errors (will be updated and Note: the Excel file is not formatted for printing). Freedman's and Rice's statistical distribution tables from the back of the book (T, Z, chisquare, and F). My notes on what changes and what doesn't change in regression when you change the inputs. A few slides about sampling and hypothesis testing.

Final Exam Preview is ready.

* Readings from a famous debate about the influence of outliers. 1) Jasso's original article on coital frequency. 2) Kahn and Udry's critique. 3) Jasso's response.

Software Required (order online)
* Intercooled (IC) Stata, Version 12. You may purchase either a 1 year license for $98,or a perpetual license for $179. I recommend the perpetual license.
http://www.stata.com/order/new/edu/gradplans/direct-ship-pricing/

The CPS dataset:
*The dataset for HW 1, and most of the rest of the homeworks is the 2000 March CPS dataset (14MB, Stata 10 version). Right-click to download the data files. I include here some housekeeping procedures I have done to the March CPS file which may helpful to you when you work with your own CPS files.

Homeworks, and their associated files:
* The first assignment for the quantitative part of the class is HW1.
* As part of HW 1, you will be required to register with ipums CPS, and download a dataset of your own

* HW 2 assignment.
* HW3 assignment is now available.
* HW4 assignment Has Been Updated Feb 25, 2010 (so make sure you have the latest version), datasets for HW4: Anscombe's data (Excel format) and a 50-state CPS dataset (Stata format).

A link for CPI inflation data.

The variables and their descriptions are best located at the website www.ipums.org, where the data come from. You will find that ipums is easy to navigate and has lots of relevant information. You can register for free and create your own dataset. For class purposes, I will be using
* ipums variable descriptions for CPS
* and ipums introduction to the CPS methodology

-----------------------------

*New, 2013 Stata class logs

* class 1 log, on tabulate and summarize.
* class 2 log, on generating new variables, on variable lables, and a bit on summarize, table, and t-test.
* class 3 log, revisiting some HW1 related Stata tools.
* class 4 log, t-test and t-distribution.
* class 5 log, dummy variables, weights, regression, and changes of scale.
* class 6, no log
* class 7 log, on regression with dummy variables and changing the comparison category
* class 10 log, graphing anscombe's data, with fits and residuals, also how to make the Vietnam vet dummy variable.
* class 12 log, on residuals, graphing, and dfbetas.

------------------------------
Archived class logs from 2011 (in case I was more coherent last time)
* First class log (summarize, tabulate, describe)
* Second class log (importing datasets, creating new variables, labels, a first look at t-tests)
* Third class log (a brief word on t-tests)
* Fourth class log (t-tests, regression, dummy variables, and weights)
* Fifth class log (a few regression models supporting the "regression graphs and fits" page of the class Excel file)
* Sixth class log (on ways to generate dummy variables for categorical predictors)
* Seventh class: I didn't run Stata in class, but instead referred during the whole class to the "regression table" sheet in the class Excel file, which was updated today. There is a lot of material in this worksheet which is relevant to thinking about HW3.
* Eighth class log (on changing regression inputs) see also my webpage on what changes and what doesn't change in regression..
* Ninth class log (a little bit on predicted values, and on graphing and plotting with Anscombe's data, see also the "more age based reg fits" page of the class Excel file)
* Tenth class log (predicted values, residuals, and dfbetas using the 50 state dataset)
-------------------------------------

Supplementary information:
* In case you need it, but you probably won't, A multiyear CPS dataset, in zipped format (37MB Zipped, 95MB when expanded, Stata 10 version). Here is a link to the ipums codebook for the CPS data extraction I used (the 2000 data is just a subset of this multiyear extraction).

My notes on how to match husband to wife or householder to partner, to create couples data, using STATA and census data from ipums.

Two graphs to get you thinking about life course versus historical and cohort effects, from the 2000 CPS. Mean income by age and gender, and mean education by age and gender. A log for the creation of the graphs is here. Figures for health status by age are here, embedded with commands and notes.

Some additional reading that we may or may not get to:

* On the subject of what to do when sampling fraction is 1 (see here for a definition of sampling fraction), see blog posts by Statistician Andrew Gelman here and here, and see this paper by Desbiens.

* "The Earth is Round" by Jacob Cohen, on Null Hypothesis testing and Bayesian inference

* Lisse et al's 2003 paper from the Annals of Internal Medicine on the hazards of Vioxx (Rofecoxib), for a discussion of the dangers that can befall us when we don't take the power of tests into account.

* On the subject of data presentation with maps, see these area-weighted cartographs of election results. On the subject of Tufte and data presentation, see Peter Norvig's parody of Powerpoint using the Gettysburg Address.

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Additional and supplementary Information about the CPS:
Download a pdf version of the documentation (~1.94 MB), and the March 2000 CPS dataset itself (~9.5MB, Stata 8 version, but does not have all the nice labels nor all the variables of the above version)- Note: if your browser tries to display rather than download this file, try control-click for Mac or right-click for windows). New: a pdf version of the official explanation of the methodology of the CPS (~2.2MB- don't print this- it is many hundred pages long). Also, you will find that the online documentation at ipums is more helpful anyway.

  "Introduction to Social Research"
Note: This class has been superseded by Soc 180B/280B

Project 1, Historical/ Archival: Information: Notes on how to read sources, and guide for project 2 proposals. Some additional helpful hints about how to write the historical paper.

Project 1, Historical/ Archival: Information: Some notes on potential topics and library resources at Stanford. Notes on how to read sources, and guide for project 2 proposals. What are primary and secondary sources? See the Yale library website for some explanations and examples. Some additional helpful hints about how to write the historical paper.

Project 2, Ethnography: Some guidance about what the proposal for the first project should look like. Guidelines for the first project paper. Some key terms from Goffman.