PAPA6514: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY INQUIRY

Professor Matthew Dull

Email: mdull@vt.edu
Tel. 703-706-8117 (office) 202-821-3807 (cell)

Course Description

This class is about applying knowledge to the problems administrators and analysts encounter each day. What do I know? How confident am I? What do I need to know? Simple enough; but the answers are often complicated, uncertain, time-consuming, controversial, and – in ways that are sometimes almost invisible – fraught with opportunities for faulty inference. Our purpose this semester is to think carefully about the hazards of information and inference in order to improve how we bring knowledge to bear on pressing problems. The course has three basic objectives:

1) Examine problems of evidence and causation in social research of any kind, and in policy and public administration research in particular.
2) Build a common understanding of concepts in quantitative research methodology: variables and distributions, statistical significance, hypothesis testing, linear regression.
3) Prepare students for the creative, pragmatic application of information and analytical thinking to problems common in public policy and public administration.

Required Texts
The following texts will be required for all students taking the course. Please make arrangements to purchase both:
Elizabethann O’Sullivan, Gary Rassel, and Maureen Berner. 2006. Research Methods for Public Administration. Longman, 4th Edition. ISBN: 0321085582
*Note that this is the hardcover 4th Edition. Used copies are available online.
Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams. 2008. The Craft of Research. University of Chicago, 3rd Edition (Paperback). ISBN: 0226065669.
Joel Best. 2001. Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists. University of California Press. ISBN: 0520219783.
Other course readings will be made available in electronic copy on Blackboard. Completion of an introductory statistics course is required for this course. It is also strongly recommended that you review a basic statistics text. One text that is clear and available used is:
Robert M. Kaplan, 1986. Basic Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. Allyn and Bacon, Inc.

Course Contribution

Regular attendance and informed contributions to class are both a part of your grade and essential to learning. This requires: 1) Regular attendance; 2) Informed contributions based on a close reading of course materials; 3) Reading and offering feedback on other participants’ work; 4) Regularly posting research updates and drafts to the “Projects” discussion on Blackboard.

Problem Sets

Four problem sets applying material covered in class are due before class on the dates designated on the course schedule. Problem sets #1 and 2 are to be turned in to me in paper copy at the beginning of class; Problem Sets #3 and #4 should be submitted in electronic format via Blackboard. A full letter grade will be deducted for each day a problem set is late.

Paper Proposals

In one or two pages state clearly the question or problem motivating your paper. Identify how the information you will collect and interpret will contribute to existing knowledge. Why should readers be interested in our research? Why should readers deem your research credible?

Datagraphy – Numbers Paper

Identify and examine an interesting policy number. This number may be interesting because it is influential or because it serves as an indicator of a concept or relationship you deem important. In a concise 1500-word profile, consider:
Description – Identify the indicator. What concept does it operationalize? What are the underlying data, who collects it, and how often?
Distribution: If possible, include a trend or distribution representing the number. How, if at all, does representing the distribution inform how the indicator is interpreted?
Development – Where did the number come from and why? Have the underlying methodology, how the number is reported, or the number’s audience changed?
Why the number is interesting? – Explain why the indicator is interesting. What issues does it draw attention to – what issues might it obscure?

Here are a few datagraphy examples:
African-American voter turnout
Blood pressure
Bowl Championship Series (BCS)
Budget deficit
Carbon footprint
Consumer confidence
Credit score
Crime rate
Foreclosure rate
Gini coefficient
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Hospital quality indicators
Intelligence quotient
Literacy rates
Nielsen ratings
Olympics medal counts
Pages in the Federal Register
Poverty line
Presidential approval rating
S&P 500 Index
SAT scores
Size of government
Standards of Learning (SOLs)
Speed limit
Stagflation
Systeme International (SI) Time
U.S. News College Rankings

Final Paper: Research Design or Empirical Paper
We will discuss the format of the final paper in greater detail during the course of the semester. As a preliminary matter, your final paper should be a short (10-15 pages) research design or empirical paper. At a minimum your paper should include the following:
Problem Statement and Overview
Hypotheses or Expectations
Method of Data Collection
Scholarly or Policy Contribution

Published by admin on September 23 of 2008