Spring 2023 - 60530 - PA 397G - Analytical Methods for Global Policy Studies

Governments constantly endeavor to evaluate policies and programs for efficiency. Estimation of efficiency is critical to foster improvements in outcomes. As students of public affairs and future policymakers, it is extremely important that you acquire the skills needed to perform these evaluations. Through a variety of real-world examples or published research, we discuss how to translate policy questions into defensible research designs, assemble data and carry out analysis, and interpret and present the results. In the course, special attention is given to understanding the validity of underlying assumptions and the detection of faulty reasoning and analysis.  The desired outcome is for the course participants to gain a deeper appreciation for the strengths and limitations of quantitative and qualitative analysis as a way of understanding policy issues and choices. Along the way, students become proficient in using Microsoft Excel, which is an excellent general-purpose tool for performing probability and statistical evaluation.