PADP 8130: Linear Models

Monday 12pm to 3pm, Baldwin 202 | Office Hours: Monday 9am-12pm or by appointment | Course list-serv: TBD

This course provides students an opportunity to develop quantitative analysis skills that can be applied to social science research questions. Specifically, the course will provide a general foundation in linear modeling, which will include multiple regression, model diagnostics and goodness-of-fit, causal inference, time series analysis, and multilevel models.

Objectives

By the end of the semester, students should be able to:

• Identify and implement a quantitative social science research project
• Identify the most appropriate methodological techniques for analysis given a research question and available data, as well as identify and offer resolution to various problems encountered during quantitative analysis.
• Conduct data analyses using the methodologies covered in the course.

Guidelines

Prerequisites

PADP 8120 or a similar course(s) that provide a background in basic math and statistics (students should know how to take a derivative and perform a t-test)

Office Hours

My office is in Baldwin Hall, Room 415. Office hourse are Monday 9am to noon. While I am happy to hold weekly office hours, I fully acknowledge that other classes, work schedules, childcare constraints, etc., can make it difficult to get to Baldwin Hall within a set 90 minute window. For this reason I am happy to talk on the phone with you if that is more convenient. Or, if you need to coordinate a conversation with me and your group members, I am happy to meet with you virtually using Google Meetup, Skype, or similar technology. If you have a topic you would like to bounce around or you seek a detailed amount of feedback about something related to class, my only request is that you consider a medium other than email since writing out long emails (and replies) is often less efficient than a conversation.

Readings

There is one required book for this course: (1) Wooldridge: Introductory Econometrics . You are welcome to purchase older editions of either book, but you will be responsible for cross-referencing with respect to the correct problem assignments and readings.

Attendance

Class preparation and participation are very important for success in this course. Please arrive on time to class and attend each class. An absence is excused if you email me in advance of the class meeting and only in the case of illness, documented emergencies, and unavoidable conflict due to official university obligations. If you anticipate missing more than two classes I encourage you to drop this class and find another course that is more conducive to your schedule. Students who miss more than 2 classes without excuse will have their grade reduced by one full letter for each additional class period missed. Job interviews and job-related conflicts are not considered excused absences. Absences reported after missing class are considered unexcused unless valid documentation is provided. I expect students who are unable to attend class to obtain class materials and notes from classmates. Missing class is not an excuse for turning in late assignments.

Participation

As mentioned above, class preparation and participation are very important for success in this class. I ask that you attend class, arrive on time, complete assigned readings, and to contribute to class activities through active participation and involvement. Everyone benefits tremendously when there is active participation in class. Class discussions are not an empty exercise to gain points but an effort to teach each other how to engage in respectful and high-level discussions. Come to class with enthusiasm and ready to engage me, your classmates, the material, and your abilities!

Academic Integrity

As a University of Georgia student, you have agreed to abide by the University's academic honesty policy, 'A Culture of Honesty,' and the Student Honor Code. All academic work must meet the standards described in 'A Culture of Honesty' found at: https://ovpi.uga.edu/academic-honesty/academic-honesty-policy. Lack of knowledge of the academic honesty policy is not a reasonable explanation for a violation. Questions related to course assignments and the academic honesty policy should be directed to the instructor.

Special Accommodations

If you have a learning disability, sensory or physical disability or if English is not your first language and you need special assistance in lecture, reading assignments, or written assignments, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester. Students with chronic conditions (illness, disability, extenuating personal or family circumstances) that may require special accommodations must notify me in writing by February 2nd. In the case of chronic illness, you must provide a doctor's note written on letterhead with the doctor's name, signature and telephone number. Excuses for chronic conditions will not be granted if documentation is not provided before the February 2nd. The physician must be located in the United States, preferably locally.

Students needing accommodations because of disability will need to register with UGA's Disability Resource Center (DRC) and complete the appropriate forms issued by DRC before accommodations can be provided. The DRC office at the University of Georgia is located at 114 Clark Howell Hall, or the DRC can be reached by phone at (706) 542-8719. For more information, please see: https://drc.uga.edu/

Email

You are welcome to email me whenever you have a question or need clarification about something related to class. Please begin the subject line with "PADP 8130 Spring 2017" so that I can clearly see the email among our other correspondence. Please also allow sufficient time (24 hours) for a response. I will do my best to reply as soon as possible but oftentimes I might be traveling, in day-long meetings, or engaged in other activities that take me away from email. In certain cases, you may pose a good question from which everyone in the class may benefit hearing the answer; in those circumstances I may copy in the class email list when I reply.

Netiquette

Students are expected to abide by professional standards in all written and spoken communications, including email, web-based and other electronic communications. I will not respond to emails without a subject line or appropriate salutation. For a guide to respectful electronic communications, please see: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html

Course Assignments Overview

As the semester progresses, I will distribute detailed guidance regarding each assignment under separate cover.

General Thoughts on Assignments

This course aims to provide advanced training in the practice of quantitative social sciene research. To that end, course assignments are designed to help students engage with the material and apply course concepts. In practice, this means that instead of tests and problem sets, course deliverables are structured such that at the end of the course you will (should) have a polished research paper.

A few notes regarding deliverables:

• All assignments are due to the course @eLearning page by class time on the designated due date
• Individual assignments must be clearly labelled using the following format: 'Firstinitial.Lastname.PADP8130.Assignment'. Assignments that do not follow this convention will not be accepted.
• All written work must be double spaced, with 1-inch margins.
• All assignments must be submitted in .pdf format. Assignments not submitted as a .pdf file will be returned for revision and will be marked late.

Deliverables Schedule

Please note that specific details for each assignment will be passed out under separate heading and cover. The text below is meant to provide an overview of how the course assignments fit together. As the semester progresses, I will distribute detailed guidance regarding each stage of the project (e.g., idea sketch, working draft, etc.). Those documents will also be posted on this page.

This is a graduate-level course, and so I expect that you will do all readings prior to class. All required readings are either in your textbook or linked to in the following calendar either directly or through the UGA library (password protected). Please note that I have purposely assigned only a few readings per week, with the strong expectation that this will allow you to read each piece completely and fully engage with the readings. Supplemental readings are not required, but are meant to provide an additional resource in case it is helpful; sometimes, the way one book (or instructor) explains a statistical concept just works better for a given student, so if the assignmed reading makes you say "Huh?", give the supplemental reading a try.

Reading Schedule