Introduction to Data Analysis Rev: 3/29/2019
Sociology 180B/280B
Draft Syllabus
Class Tuesday+ Thursday, 3P-4:20P
Lab/Section once a week time
1) Fridays 10:30A-11:50A
or
2) Thursdays 6P-7:20P
Michael J. Rosenfeld
Professor
Department of Sociology
Building 120 room 124
The class website is my personal Stanford website
Office Hours TBA
TAs
Amy Johnson (aljohnson@stanford.edu)
Michael Hahn (mikehahn@stanford.edu)
Use Canvas to submit homework
Introduction:
This class will cover basic statistics including regression, how do statistical analysis, and how to find flaws and problems with statistical analyses.
In the process of learning about data analysis you will also learn about demography and stratification in the U.S., because the dataset is the Current Population Survey of March, 2000, which is a nationally representative survey of more than 60,000 households, with lots of information about race, gender, income, occupation, place of residence, and so on. You'll also learn how to use one of the most powerful and flexible tools for data analysis, the statistical software STATA.
Readings and Grading Policy
Books (available at Stanford Bookstore):
* Freedman, David, Robert Pisani, and Roger Purves. 2007. Statistics. Fourth Edition. W.W. Norton. $105, ISBN: 0393929728 (recommended). If you know a little about statistics already, or if you have taken one statistics class like Stats 60, you don’t need to buy the Freedman, and you can ignore the Freedman reading assignments.
* Tufte, Edward. 2001. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Graphics Press. $28, 0961392142 (required).
Other readings will be linked from the class website.
Software Required (order online)
* Intercooled (IC) Stata, Version 15. You may purchase either a 1 year license for $125,or a perpetual license for $225. I recommend the perpetual license so that you can use this software in the future. The software comes with a small introduction to Stata book. Don’t bother buying Stata’s massive printed reference book collection. I will teach you the Stata commands that you need to know, and the Stata online help is very good.
https://www.stata.com/order/new/edu/gradplans/campus-gradplan/
There are computer clusters at Stanford where you can run Stata for free, and you can run Stata over Unix but with reduced screen feedback. I strongly urge you to buy the Stata license and install it on your personal PC.
Computer Use Policy:
* Computer use by students in class is strictly limited to following along with the data analysis examples being presented by the professor.
GRADING:
1) Undergraduates, Soc 180B:
Homework |
4 homeworks, 15% each |
Regular section participation |
10% |
Final exam (based on data analysis part of the course) |
30% |
2) Graduate Students Soc 280B
Homework |
4 homeworks, 15% each |
Regular section participation |
10% |
In-class presentation (data analysis of dataset of your own choosing) outline |
10% (due date to be negotiated with professor Rosenfeld |
In-class presentation (data analysis of dataset of your own choosing) actual presentation to class |
20% (class presentation date to be negotiated with professor Rosenfeld) |
Project and Reading Assignment Timeline
Week |
CLASS |
Class lecture Goals |
READINGS; REQUIRED READINGS IN BOLD. |
ASSIGNMENT |
1 |
Apr 2 |
Introduction to the class |
|
|
|
Apr 4 |
Basics of descriptive data analysis using STATA |
Read my Intro to Stata (required) Read Freedman Ch 4 |
|
|
Section |
Work on HW 1 and on using STATA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
Apr 9 |
Observational Studies and their limitations |
Freedman Ch 2 |
|
|
Apr 11 |
Error and bias |
Freedman Ch 6 |
|
|
Section |
Work on HW 1 and on using STATA |
|
Friday, April 12, HW 1 due at midnight |
|
|
|
|
|
3 |
Apr 16 |
Error and bias |
Freedman Ch 6 |
Hand out HW#2 |
|
Apr 18 |
Probability sampling, Sample size and power, and standard errors |
Freedman Ch 20 |
|
|
Section |
Stata, and HW 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 |
Apr 23 |
More on sample size and power. |
Freedman Ch 21 |
|
|
Apr 25 |
Statistics and hypothesis testing |
|
|
|
Section: |
Stata, and HW 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friday, Apr 26, HW#2 due by midnight |
5 |
Apr 30 |
Introduction to regression with STATA |
Freedman Chs 9, 10 |
Hand out HW#3 |
|
May 2 |
More on regression with STATA, interpreting coefficients |
Freedman, Ch 11, 12 |
|
|
Section |
Work on HW #3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6 |
May 7 |
Problems with and difficulties in using regression, Graphing. |
Tufte, read the whole book (required) |
|
|
May 9 |
Proper and improper presentation of data |
|
|
|
Section |
Work on HW #3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friday, May 10, HW#3 due by midnight |
7 |
May 14 |
Additivity, linearity, and regression fits |
|
Hand out HW #4 |
|
May 16 |
Regression analysis: residuals and outliers |
Readings by Jasso and Kahn and Udry, and Jasso’s response posted on my website (all required) |
|
|
Section |
Work on STATA, discuss the issues in HW 4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 |
May 21 |
Logistic regression |
|
|
|
May 23 |
Logistic regression and the likelihood ratio test |
|
|
|
Section |
Work on STATA, discuss the issues in CPS HW #4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 |
May 28 |
Polls, polling aggregation, and election prediction |
|
|
|
May 30 |
Soc 280B in-class presentations |
|
|
|
|
|
HW #4 due Friday, May 31 by midnight |
|
|
Section |
Work on STATA, discuss the issues in HW 4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 |
June 4 |
Final Exam Review |
|
|
|
June 6 |
No class |
|
|
|
no section meetings |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Final exam |
Saturday, June 8, 3:30P-6:30P |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|